Game Face
by LittleChicago
Summary: The raid on Hades' Vault is over, and Harry has come home... but very little is as he left it; he's got new digs, a new job, and new enemies. Good thing he still has his friends. He'll need them for his next Winter Knight mission: hunting down and assassinating a natural predator.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Having finished Skin Game, I was seized with the need to start writing Dresden again. So, here is my take on what happened not long after Harry finally came home.**

"So, basically, my life is pretty routine these days," I said. I twirled my oak staff over my head to build some momentum, then brought the end of it down into the face of an ugly man in a turtleneck. His jaw cracked and he fell.

"That's good to hear," my brother, Thomas, shouted over his shoulder. He emptied another clip from his unnecessarily huge handgun into a crowd of turtlenecks. "What's your typical day like?"

"Well," I said, kicking another man in the gut, doubling him over, "I wake up, usually at Karrin's, roll out of bed, get the coffee on. _Forzare!_" - a motorcycle that had been overturned earlier jumped off the ground at my command and hurled itself into two more of the turtlenecks, knocking them through a wall – "Then I grab a shower – a _hot_ shower, which is amazing, by the way."

"Yeah, welcome to the twenty-first century, dumbass, we've been waiting for you." Thomas caught a blow from a heavy tree branch on a curved knife. The knife sank into the wood a little, and he pulled, yanking the bearer of the branch forward. He punched the man in the face, crumpling him.

"_Fuego!_" I shouted, and a gout of fire leapt from the end of my staff into the small building we were currently fighting beside. It started to burn, forcing the motorcycle men to crawl their way back out. "By the time I get out, Karrin's usually up, and we lay out the plan for the day. Some shopping," – I pulled a large revolver from a shoulder holster and shot a small man in the leg – "maybe it's my turn to do the laundry, we kill some bad guys, or clean the gutters. I have a few new foci I've been working on." I swung my staff again, bringing it down on a man's hand, knocking his gun away. Then I kicked him in the chest, sending him flying.

"If I'm being honest, it sounds a little boring," Thomas said. The crowd we were taking on was thinning out – almost all of the servitors of the Fomor were on the ground, dead or injured. He blurred a little as he moved out of the way of a shotgun blast – which was loud, even here in the great outdoors – then brought his curved _kukri_ knife down, severing the hand of the shooter, who sank to his knees, groaning.

"Oh, and what, you and Justine don't do domestic bliss?" I absent-mindedly kicked a man in the face who drew a knife while staggering up from the ground. He might have been one of the motorcyclists. "I'm done with my half, by the way."

"Every day is a new adventure for us, little brother," he said, and blurred again, this time grabbing a turtleneck who was hiding behind a tree, and throwing him, end over end, into a different tree. "Also done." He was breathing about as heavily as I was, which was to say not much at all. His eyes had turned silvery, though.

"Finally," I said, then raised my voice. "If you're still alive, stay down if you want to stay that way. If you choose to get up, be advised that I have back up on the way."

Thomas snickered for reasons all his own. It was a harsh sound.

I gave a hard look around at the twenty or so men we had just utterly destroyed. They all stayed on the ground. Expression softening, I turned back to Thomas and lowered my voice. "Besides, that's not the end of the day. I also get to spend time with the kids."

Thomas blinked a few times, and his eyes lost some of their sheen. He did start to breathe heavily, as his demon, the source of his super-strength, receded. He smiled again, but it was much softer than before. "Maggie," he whispered.

"And the new addition."

"Oh yeah. Pick a name yet?"

"No, not yet."

"It's been over a month, now."

"I know."

"May I suggest 'Babiel'?"

I squinted at him. "No. No you may not. That's terrible."

He barked out a laugh. "I would have thought you'd have gone with Athena."

"Nah, too obvious. And it implies I'm Zeus."

He snorted. "I still can't believe _you_ gave birth."

Behind me, the garage burned, but it had nothing to do with the sudden heat in my cheeks. I sighed. "All right, get it out."

"Get what out? I have nothing to say."

"Good."

"Seahorse."

I rolled my eyes.

"Mr. Mom."

I grunted.

"Junior. Bunny Test. M-Preg."

"If I were to punch you in the face right now, would you take it personally?"

Something moved in the woods, and both of us turned, tensing. A large wolf stepped into a shadow, and a stout, strong, naked man stepped out of it.

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "Will. Don't sneak up on a guy."

He gave me a look a lesser person might have thought condescending. "Harry, if I wanted to sneak up on you, I would have."

Thomas laughed. He now had his hands on his knees, and continued to breathe. "You okay?" I asked.

"I should stay out here," he said after a moment. "You go finish up."

I nodded in understanding. Thomas' predator instincts, his need to feed, were strong right now. If he came inside with us…

Well. Let's just say I know a thing or two about succumbing to baser desires. It wouldn't be pretty. Keeping my mind distracted through running math equations or engaging in banter was just about the only way to keep my own demon quiet, even as I drew on its strength. Now, my demon was a little more metaphorical than Thomas'… but no less deadly.

"Okay," I said. I looked at Will. "The others in place?"

He nodded. "Good to go."

"All right. Let's do it."

He hesitated a moment.

"What is it?"

He smiled and embraced me. Was I uncomfortable being hugged by a naked man? Maybe a smidge. But he was a friend, and I had missed him. I hugged back. This sort of thing also held back the cold winds of Winter flowing in my blood. Will pulled away. "I haven't had a chance to say it, but, welcome back, Harry."

"Good to be back, my friend. Now, game face on." I turned to look a little up a hill at a large house that could barely be seen through the foliage. "This is a rescue mission, after all."

The Fomor aren't a race. Or rather, they aren't _one_ race. Over the centuries, the millennia, they formed as a coalition of supernatural outcasts and exiles, biding their time, waiting for opportunities and searching for weaknesses. A couple of years ago, I'd accidentally given them the biggest opportunity they'd ever had, and the fishy-faced bastards had seized it.

They had begun taking people; mostly people with magical talent – a low level practitioner here, a werewolf there, a few others - but also folks with no link to the supernatural at all.

And recently, they'd started taking children.

So naturally, I'd decided it was time for them all to die.

I walked, obviously alone, right up the driveway towards the front door of the house. It was old and oversized, and located in one of the most exclusive, expensive, and most importantly, isolated, pieces of property in Chicago.

My leather duster draped around me. There was a growing wind coming off Lake Michigan, which was less than a mile from here, and the coat started to billow, which definitely made me look cool. My staff hit the driveway with a nice, solid 'thunk' with every other step I took. My face was set in what I hoped was a grim, pissed-off expression.

The front door to the house was oversized, just like the rest of it, made of solid old wood and set just a step above the driveway, which looped across the full breadth of the place. I stopped about ten yards from it, then looked up at all the windows. Every single one of them was dark.

I raised my voice, addressing the whole house. "You know who I am. You know why I'm here. Give me what I want, and I'll let you live. Don't give me what I want, and your house will soon look like your garage." I pulled out an honest to god pocket watch – I picked it up at a pawn shop for cheap, just for this little show, and felt it added quite a dramatic touch. "You have one minute."

Then I looked at the watch very deliberately. The seconds ticked by. Ten. Twenty. I was of two minds about what I wanted to happen. If the Fomor gave up the hostages willingly, there was no chance of any of them would get hurt.

On the other hand, if they didn't, I could tear in there and beat the every living hell out of every single one of the amphibian assholes, rip their gills out, gut them, scale them, throw them over a garage fire and maybe even feast on sole –

Five fives is twenty five, six sixes is thirty six, seven sevens is forty nine, eight eights is sixty four…

The instinctual need to kill slowly pulled back into my hindbrain again.

Forty seconds. Forty five.

I looked up at the dark windows again. "You're almost out of time. Oh, and every single servitor you left out side is dead, over well on the way. Ten seconds left… Five."

Zero.

"Okay, have it your way." I put the watch away. "You come here, you take people off the streets, you think you can do anything you want? Well, brother, not in my fucking city! That shit stops right now! _Forzare! Forzare!_"

I didn't aim for the front door, because that's what they would have been expecting. Instead, I blew out the windows to the rooms immediately to the right and left of the front doors. And then my back up charged in.

Will and Georgia, the nicest werewolf couple I know, came flying in from the left, while Marci and Andi, two other members of the Alpha pack, came in from the right. Behind them, a dozen men, each with large guns and even larger muscles, charged out of the trees and towards the shattered windows. As the returned Viking warriors chased the werewolves, I went for the front door myself. As I did, several windows on the second floor exploded outwards, and men and… uh, other things, most of which were close to human, started shooting down at us.

I still hadn't had time to create a new shield bracelet, but I had become much better at creating shields without one lately. I lifted my left arm – difficult, it being recently broken, though not impossible with the cool power of Winter numbing the pain – and pushed my will, along with a bit of gathered energy, forward. Bullets instantly began to ring against a half-dome of that energy, and slip off. I tuned the shield to have some give, so anything hitting it would lose all of its momentum; I'd tried making one that was just soft recently, and the drain on me was just too much. I trusted the einherjaren to protect themselves.

I stopped at the door, leaned my staff against it, and touched it with my right hand, keeping my bullet umbrella above me. I felt several wards, mostly simple, but one or two that were more in line with my own power level. Obviously, they didn't extend to the windows. I could have broken them and forced the door – and part of me really, really wanted to, to assert my dominance – but time was of the essence here. I headed for the window on the right and followed the first wave.

I jumped through the window, and into a mess. Several turtlenecked guards had been cut down with tooth and claw, bullet and blade. The room had been an office of some sort, and wood, glass and paper were freaking everywhere, most of it shredded and shattered and covered in blood. I followed the trail of destruction into the hallway, where the einherjar were now pushing the attack with controlled bursts of fire out into the wings of the house. The Alphas, sticking to the plan, had taken shelter behind the big men, where they were much harder to hit, keeping weary eyes on the entrance hall until I came to join them.

One of the wolves shimmered and was replaced by a petite, naked, toned woman with brown hair crouching on all fours. I tried not to notice any of those things, and was partly successful. "Where's Thomas?" she asked, sounding just a little worried. That was difficult to do when shouting over automatic gunfire.

"Keeping a lid on things outside," I answered. "We stick to the game plan, Marci. Ready?"

Marci nodded and changed her coat back. She and Andi both tensed behind me. I looked across the antechamber, and its large, engraved wooden staircase, where Will and Georgia were similarly waiting. I took a breath, allowed Winter to flood through my muscles, easing aches, quieting the guns, and tightening my muscles.

I gave them a thumbs-up, then shoved my will back into my umbrella, and charged for the stairs.

Gunfire rained down on me as I surged forward. The occasional stray shot that got by the shield bounced off the heavily-spell-re-enforced leather of my duster, and I didn't take a single hit as I mounted the stairs three at a time. When I was halfway up and all five – no, six – shooters were focused on me, the wolves made their move, following me up under the protection of my shield. As I continued up, without slowing down, the shooters backed up. One of them bumped into the wall behind him, and turned to run. The others took their cue from him, but before they could get away, the Alphas were on them, and a wolf with human-level intelligence does not take long to dispatch… well, anything, really.

I dropped my shield and drew my gun. Another gunman appeared, paused to take aim, and flew backwards with one of my bullets in his chest. "Noses up. Any more?"

Billy the wolf shook his head.

"Check the rooms, just in case they're shielded somehow, then we hit the basement."

The Alphas moved, quickly and carefully, to each room on the floor, literally poking their noses in, but returned empty-pawed a couple of minutes later. The gunfire downstairs had tapered off. I led the way back to the entrance hall. "Skheldi?" I asked the enormous man standing at the base of the stairs.

"Floor is clear," he replied, his accent giving his voice a strangely soothing cadence. "The stairs down are at the back." He pointed to a third hall that extended back from the front of the house. I could see the other einherjar standing in what might have been a kitchen.

He led me and the Alphas to the basement door. I put my hand on it and extended my arcane senses. Most people have these extra senses; anytime you suddenly know you're being watched, or get a chill up your spine, that's your instincts detecting something the rest of you can't. Usually, it's better that way. Wizards train and hone that little chunk of ESP for years, creating sensitivity to things vanilla people never even realize are there.

I'm not that sensitive, not compared to many, but I do have practice. "Wards," I muttered. "Strong. Well grounded. Give me a minute." I felt out a little farther. "They extend into the wall on either side." I closed my eyes and concentrated. Undoing wards can be tricky, especially if they are well-made, and these… these weren't bad.

But I've been breaking things for years. I handed my staff to a large, black-clad man of Swedish descent, and put my other hand on the door. "Stand back," I said, and everyone moved away, just a little. Eyes closed again, I pushed on the wards, looking for weak spots, seams, overlaps… _there_! A random frayed thread. Someone had been in a hurry. I checked the whole of that thread, and it didn't lead to a booby trap.

Mentally, I tugged. The ward slowly began to undo. I tugged a little harder.

Something let go, like reaching the middle of a band-aid as you pull it off, and the whole thing just sort of collapsed. The door grew very hot, but I encouraged the pent-up energy to diffuse throughout the house, and only a few light bulbs popped.

"Got it." I took a step back, then kicked the sweet spot right under the lock. The door cracked. I grabbed the knob with one hand, readied a shield with the other, and made to yank it open.

I should have been tipped off by the pounding sounds that erupted suddenly from the other side. The door blew right off its hinges, and I caught it with my face.

I suppose I should have been knocked out cold, but cold and I have an arrangement. I landed on my back, most of the door on top of me, and heard gunfire explode all around. I shoved the door to one side, and saw a freaking giant bearing down on me, mostly ignoring the various bullet holes that appeared in his grey skin. He was hairless and mostly toothless, but when he howled, I saw a few sharp, pointy things in his mouth.

I was not pleased with this guy's doorman routine. I pointed a finger and growled, "_Infriga!_" Instantly, the air temperature dropped, and mist coalesced around the giant. His roar was cut off, along with the small arms fire. The mist cleared quickly. The giant was still there, he just wasn't moving. Not his fault, really. He was coated in three inches of ice.

I planted a foot in his midsection (or three inches out from it) and kicked, hard. He slid backwards and cracked into dozens of pieces as he hit the doorway. Those chunks fell down the stairs, shattering into ever more, ever smaller pieces as they bounced on the steps until they hit the basement floor.

I stood at the top of the stairs. "My name is Harry Dresden," I said to the basement, where I could see nothing but the concrete floor and the stairs themselves, all covered in a giant mess (heh). "Up until now, I've just been unhappy. I'm going to come downstairs, and you're not going to have any weapons in your hands, and none of the hostages will be harmed. If you do have weapons, or the hostages are hurt, I'm going to get downright grumpy. And you wouldn't like me when I'm grumpy."

When we went down, there were no more turtlenecks or giants or other attackers. Just a trio of nervous men, one of whom was purple, one of whom had horns, and one of whom had no nose. They were waiting, on their knees, no weapons. Part of me, the part that caught the door and froze the doorman, wanted to kill them anyway, but I started reciting the Pythagorean theorem instead. The einherjar secured them.

I turned to the other end of the basement. It was dark. I watched the Alphas all stalk into the darkness, then touched the silver amulet around my neck, and willed it to light up. There, chained to the wall, where fourteen children, none older than seven, of all shapes, sizes, and colours, all in dirty clothes, and all scared out of their minds.

One of the einherjar had clothes for the wolves in a pack, and I left the actual removal of the hostages to them. I just stood there, hoping _I_ didn't scare them. That might have been difficult. I was clenching my fists so tightly my fingernails drew blood.

I stood outside with Thomas, well away from the children, back in the woods, while the just-arrived police and EMS tended to them.

"Think they'll be okay?"

"Rawlins got the message. There he is." Karrin Murphy's former partner was a big, dark, unsmiling man, but he also the best damn cop I'd ever known who I hadn't slept with. He watched the children being fussed over, then turned to scan the tree line. I lit up my amulet again, just a little, and he saw me after a few seconds. I nodded to him, and he gave a small nod back.

Thomas and I turned and walked back into the woods, heading for his car. The Alphas flanked us, moving stealthily through the woods, and the einherjar, their mission complete, were long gone. "Will you be okay?" he asked.

I knew he could smell the literal blood on my hands. "I just got angry. Seeing them all down there, scared and helpless… I wanted to shove that giant down the stairs again. I wanted to tear into the place all over again, on my own, and kill every single one of them with my bare hands. Slowly."

He was quiet for a second. "So, to answer my question… no?"

I sighed. "Still getting used to the predator instincts the mantle brings with it."

"They are hard to control. Take it from a pro."

I gave him a glance. "I do appreciate you being here."

"I've got your back, you know that. Especially since Karrin's still recovering. She doing any better?"

"Docs said her arm should be fine, but her left ACL is torn. No more spin kicks, I guess. She's always kept in shape, though, so the physio shouldn't be a problem."

"I know she's not working. If funds get tight…" he trailed off.

I grunted. "We've started moving some of the diamonds. Turns out Charity's a natural at gem-fencing."

"Churchmouse-supermom? Seriously?"

"Mm-hmm. None more surprised than she. Though remember, she's also a blacksmith and a professional-grade sparring partner, so she has hidden talents."

"Well. I guess there might be hope for her yet."

We reached his car, an over-sized German SUV, and piled in. After a few moments, the Alphas joined us, dressed in loose-fitting clothes. I twisted to face them. "Nice job tonight, everyone."

"Felt good," Georgia said from the middle seats, "letting them know they can't take children." As a mother herself, knew what she meant. Lionesses have nothing on Mama Wolf. Will took her hand. Thomas got us rolling.

"It's good having you with us again, Harry," Marci said from the far back seat. "Bit like old times. Just Fomor instead of vampires."

Thomas faked a cough.

"I meant Red Court vampires. Sorry."

"No offence taken, Mars," he said.

"Hey, nicknames are my thing," I said.

"We did good," the redhead beside Marci said. "Lots still to do, but it's a hell of a start."

"Damn right, Andi. We've been bloodying their noses for weeks. We'll hit them with a knock-out blow before too long."

"No doubt about that."

I gave her a smile, and saw her wrap a friendly arm around Marci and squeeze. She turned to look out a window, so she didn't see Marci's cheeks flush.

Thomas jerked his head, ever so slightly, like he had just smelled something delicious. Then he gripped the wheel a little tighter and focused on the road.

Thomas dropped Marci and Andi at Andi's apartment. She currently lived with Butters – or, I guess, Sir Waldo? It was hard to know what to call him since he picked up that Sword – and Marci was crashing with her tonight, since Butters had suddenly decided to travel to Idaho, for no particular reason he could explain. A primal thought about what Marci wanted to do tonight, complete with pictures, tried to capture my attention, but I turned my thoughts to something more important. Pretty sure Thomas got a whiff of those thoughts, because he gave me a very strange grin.

Ten minutes later, we pulled up to Will and Georgia's old apartment near the university, and piled out. Georgia made a very quick cell phone call from thirty feet away, to let the babysitter know we were there, then the Bordens led us inside. The elevator was cramped with us all squeezed in. When we got to the door, Will said to me, "You're both invited in, of course." He wasn't just being nice to me; not having to leave 80-90% or so of my power and awareness outside his home was far more convenient for me. He was just being polite to Thomas, of course; White Court vampires could cross any threshold, as long as their demon was not in control.

Inside, we found the babysitter sitting in a comfortable chair with 3-year-old Carlie Borden.

Karrin Murphy smiled at her charge's parents, and lifted a finger to her lips. Will and Georgia crept forward quietly. "She fell asleep to Shrek. Again. Everything's off." She added the last to me, and I took a few steps closer. Since magic and technology go together like white phosphorous and pure oxygen, I tend to be careful around cell phones and computers, for the most part. Newer TVs, too. And newer coffee pots. And newer cars. And cameras. And hot water tanks. And… everything, really.

Honestly, the world just can't handle me.

Karrin completed the hand over, and eased herself to her feet. She had refused a cane, but limped slightly, a tough, thick brace on her left knee. I retrieved her coat from the closet as she eased her left arm into a sling, which she hadn't really been using, but the doctors insisted upon.

"She wasn't too much, was she?" Georgia asked.

"Of course not. We tried hide and go seek a few times, then the big green ogre took over."

"That movie is so unrealistic," I said. "Everyone knows trolls are green. Ogres are grey."

Karrin looked at me, her smile growing wry. "Of course they are, Harry."

I draped her jacket over her shoulders.

"Thank you, Karrin," Will said as Georgia took the wolf cub to bed. "I know you hate being on the sidelines."

"Life is what it is, Will." She gave him a one-armed hug. "I watched your kid, you kept my big ogre alive. We all contribute where we can." She let go, and he nodded at her.

"We'll be in touch in a day or two," I said.

"Whenever you're ready for the next move, we're good to go."

"As we discussed; the Fomor will be pissed. No unnecessary risks for a while."

He looked in to the bedroom door. "I got it, Harry. We all did."

Thomas led us out. Karrin held my hand, and totally did not lean on me for support.

"I have a question," Thomas said to Karrin.

"Shoot."

"'Carlie'?"

"Carl was the only name they found in common between famous shrinks and famous engineers. That they liked, anyway."

"Well, better than 'Sigmund'."

We rode down to the ground floor, and headed for Thomas' Panzer. I got the door for Karrin and I offered her an arm, which five years ago she wouldn't have taken, then walked around and climbed in the middle seat next to her. "Drop you at home?" Thomas asked.

I glanced at Karrin. "Did you want to stay the night? I mean... Justine's traveling with Lara…"

"Big sister does what she has to, and so does her executive assistant. I'm a big boy. And Justine and I have an understanding. And a couple of mutual friends who occasionally stop by. And maybe spend the night."

I nodded and let it go. Thomas' demon fed on the emotional energy of sex. He could psychically stimulate anyone into wanting – hell, _needing_ – sex, but he usually kept his feeding particular. Aside from a brief period shortly before he'd thought I was dead, he'd practiced awesome self-control his whole life. These days… well, if he said he was good, he was good.

"Actually, would you mind making a stop at Michael's?"

Thomas gave me a half smile in the rear-view, and got us moving.

It was a strangely pleasant day, considering the time of year. Spring had sprung, according to the calendar, but winter was being a bitch about it. Or Winter was. Either way. The sun had shone, and the air had been crisp, but not really cold. We got to the Carpenter residence just before 8:30. "Go on, it's her bedtime. Hurry," Karrin said.

"Uh, but you - "

"Go, you moron," Thomas said. "I'll get her out."

"Okay. Okay," I stuttered, and hopped out of the SUV. I left my duster and staff on my seat. The literal white picket fence around the house had been fixed since last month's incident with the fallen angel and the psycho sasquatch, and I all but skipped up the path to knock on the door.

Charity Carpenter opened it a second later. She lifted an eyebrow.

"Hi Charity. Um. Am I too late?"

"Cutting it a little fine tonight. I was getting worried." She smiled and backed up. "Come on in. She's just brushing her teeth." A relieved smile broke across my face and I stepped inside. "You might as well just head right up."

"Thanks." I trotted over to the stairs and kept right on going. As I got to the top, I heard a tap shut off and the dull rattle of plastic on plastic. A second later, the cutest 9-year-old girl in the whole world stepped out of the bathroom, accompanied by the biggest freaking dog in the world. They were approximately the same height, give or take an inch.

And they were both just as happy to see me as I was to see them.

"Daddy!" Maggie squeaked. She was dressed in a faded softball jersey. She trotted right over to me and I ducked down to give her a hug.

"Hey, kiddo!" She sunk into my arms and I lifted her up, keeping most of the weight on my right. She locked her arms around my neck and squeezed, and I loved it. "You ready for bed?"

"Uh-huh."

"You know what story you want?"

"Yup."

"Okay." I started down the hall to her bedroom, and Mouse, my dog – _her_ dog, in most ways, though he'd been with me for years before – kept pace with a huge open-mouthed grin.

I read her a story that involved dancing lollipops and bananas that kept slipping on themselves, and tucked her in to her top bunk bed and kissed her forehead. She had her mother's dark hair, and I brushed a curl of it out of her eyes. I gave Mouse a thorough rubbing behind the ears, then turned off the light.

"Daddy?" she said in the darkness.

"Yeah, sweetie?"

"You gonna come back?"

Over the sound of my heart breaking in two, I managed to say, "Of course. I'll always come back."

"Promise?"

And those two parts shattered into infinite shards. "Yeah, I promise."

Slightly groggy, she said, "Okay."

"Sleep tight, Maggie."

"Mm-hmm." And she was out.

I eased the door shut, then meandered down the hall and stairs, unsure what I was feeling. I saw Karrin and Charity sitting in the kitchen, and I joined them. Charity saw me first. "Harry."

"Hey."

Karrin put down her tea and turned awkwardly in her seat. She knew something was off. "You okay?"

"Not sure."

"You're afraid it's not enough," Charity said. It wasn't a question; she just _knew_. There was nothing harsh in her voice. Instead it was… well, _maternal_.

My eyes snapped to her, then dropped to the floor. "I'm… starting to wonder." I looked around. "Where's Michael?"

"Alicia had practice with a few friends. She has a scholarship lined up for next year."

"Alicia's going to college next year?"

"This fall, God willing."

"Wow," I said. "They… they do grow up fast, don't they?"

Charity gave me a sympathetic smile. We hadn't always got along well, but over the years we'd discovered a few things in common, and the relationship had warmed. Apparently, parenthood was the thing that made me mostly-okay in her book. "Don't have to tell me," she said, and, while I have no idea how she did it, there was sadness and happiness in her voice at the same time.

Karrin and I ambled back to Thomas' waiting SUV. I saw him see us, and turn off his cell phone. "You going to be okay?" she asked.

"I'm working on it. I'm not sure. I know this is just one big band-aid right now, but… if I'm going to be her father, I mean, really be a part of her life…" I trailed off, uncertain how to continue.

We climbed into the luxury apartment on wheels. Thomas took one glance at me and said, "You look like you just took one to the gut."

"She made me promise I would always come back."

Thomas did a double take, his mouth open and his eyebrows in his hairline. He was silent for a moment, slowly turning to setting facing forward in his seat, then said, "Holy shit, little brother."

Karrin piped up. "Speaking as a girl whose dad didn't come home one day… don't make that promise." We both turned to her. "Just don't. If something bad gets you one day… that'll break her heart. But the fact that you promised… that'll tear it out and smash it on the ground." We were silent. "In my experience, anyway."

"Karrin - " I started.

She silenced me with a hand on my arm. "Be there. Be there as much as you possibly can. But don't lie to her. Don't you fucking _dare_. There's a chance she'll never be able to forgive you."

The silence thickened as I considered that I should have asked for this advice _before_ making the promise. Finally, Thomas turned the big vehicle turned on and took us home.

Once inside Karrin's little house – I was having trouble thinking of it as 'our house' – we started our nightly wind down. I couldn't spend every night here, of course – eventually, the magic I brought along would break everything in the place – but when I could, I did. And we did have a way of mitigating the damage.

"You sure?" she asked. "You don't have to do this everytime."

"We've been over this. It's the easiest way to keep the lid on the magic. And it's just about the only way to keep the lid on the Knight's mantle. I need to be able to feel my injuries, remember my limits."

She took a breath. "Okay." She picked up the steel bracelet I'd obtained from the Svartalves, lined with dozens of tiny, steel thorns around the inner circumference, and locked it around my right wrist. The thorns bit into my skin. Iron and its alloys are anathema to Fae magic, and the Mantle I'd received from Mab, the Winter Queen, was pure Fae.

Instantly, the power of Winter receded, the dulling effect on my pain vanished, and my enhanced stamina and strength – and aggression - faded. Dozens of little aches and pains suddenly demanded attention, and I found myself glad I was already sitting in the kitchen. I was hit with an overwhelming fatigue that made me really, really want to sleep.

I closed my eyes. The thorn bracelet also prevented my own magic from being useful; I couldn't project it or use it to sense things. The most disturbing thing was losing contact with my wards – the defensive spells I'd placed around the house. It was like suddenly going numb in a limb. There were honestly days I had no idea how vanilla mortals functioned.

"You good?" she asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, you go get ready for bed. I have some mental blocks to put in place."

She patted my knee and I heard her stand and limp away. I started my usual mental exercise: erecting barriers in my mind that would hold back the pain. It was an old meditation trick I'd picked up in my teens during my original training with Justin DuMorne, my adoptive father. He'd turned out to be a mind-controlling psycho, but he knew his stuff.

After a while I stood on uneasy feet. I'd broken my back shortly before taking the Winter Knight's Mantle on; I'd made healing my back a separate part of the bargain when I agreed to the position, otherwise the thorn bracelet would have left me without the use of my legs, too. I'd discovered the hard way (that is to say, I fell flat on my face) that the only thing that could take my back away was an outright refusal to act in Winter's interests once I'd taken on a task.

I walked towards the spare bedroom, where I'd recently set up a miniature magic workshop. It was a tiny fraction of the size of my old lab, but it didn't need to be big. We'd arranged a desk in the corner, and on and near it, some of my magical accoutrements. And leaning up against the wall next to it, on top of a small pile of notebooks, was Excalibur.

That's not the name the old Sword went by these days, but at one time… Now called _Amoracchius_, the massive broadsword had a nail from the crucifixion worked into the hilt. It was one of the most powerful weapons mortals could wield against the supernatural in existence.

And I was using it as a glorified paperweight.

Gives you an idea of the level of crap I deal with on a daily basis.

But sitting on top of the desk, on top of another little pile of notebooks, near my jeweler's tools, was a hand-carved, wooden copy of a human skull. I sat down at the desk and put my hand on the skull, gently, feeling some of the hundreds of small glyphs I'd carved into the surface.

Tiny green lights popped into existence in the skull's eye sockets. "Hello?" a little voice asked from inside it.

"Hi there, little one," I said.

"Oh, hi, Harry. How are you?"

"I'm fine," I didn't-quite-lie. "I wanted to see how you were doing."

"How I was doing what?" She sounded confused, and it took everything I had not to laugh at her. It seemed she had inherited her mother's sense of humour.

"I meant how you were getting along."

"Getting along with who? I'm the only one in here."

I blinked and bit the inside of my cheek. "You know what? I phrased that poorly. I meant that I wanted to know how you were feeling."

"Oh, that. Stronger. I read some more today after sunset."

"Did you learn anything new?"

"No."

My brow creased. "Oh. Well, we'll have to find some new sources for you, then."

"That would be nice." She sounded genuinely pleased.

"Okay. I'll see what I can do tomorrow."

"Okay." She made a yawning noise and the skull rattled a bit. "I'm sleepy again."

"Get some more rest. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

The little lights went out.

"You've been really cool about this," I said to Karrin a few minutes later as I climbed into bed.

"About what?" She didn't look up from her book.

"Well, I never figured you for a girl who'd hook up with a guy who has two kids."

She snorted, and put her book down, dog-earing the page. Then she leaned over and kissed me. "What can I say? If either of them is anything like you, they'll be worth knowing."

I half-smiled. "I worry. That they might end up _too_ much like me."

"If they're too much like you, they'll just end up lipping off and burning things down all the time." She touched my face. "But they'll also be survivors. And they'll be good people."

"Probably not too bright, though."

"Here's hoping they take after their mothers in that sense." My turn to snort. "How's the arm?"

"Achy. But I appear to be healing much faster than I should."

"Hmm. Must be nice."

"Oh, foot-in-mouth disease strikes again. Karrin, I didn't mean - "

"Stop. Stop right there. The ACL was torn, not severed. It'll heal some, and I'll be walking just fine before we know it. I'll probably wear a brace for the rest of my life, but hey, shit happens."

"You… you're taking that so well."

"I know. A few years ago, I probably would have been extremely unhappy about it."

"To put it mildly."

"Well, what can I say? One of us had to be the mature one."

"You got hurt saving my life."

"Yeah, I was there."

"It was amazing."

"Again, saw it."

"It was hot."

"Okay. Keep talking." She leaned in again.

"True act of heroism. Or 'heroine-ism', I guess."

"Okay. Stop talking."

"Right."

Then we were kissing, and the night went far better than the day.

The following morning, I stood beside Karrin in my jeans and a button-down shirt. She sat at the kitchen table, still wearing her pajamas, staring intently at a series of maps that she'd had open for an hour: Chicago, the mid-west, North America, and most of South America and the Caribbean, all of which had been marked with lines and 'X's. "The territory is shifting," she said. "I'm not ready to say we're winning, but even before last night, the Fomor were on the back foot here. The problem is, Chicago is one of the exceptions; they have a pretty solid presence in most major cities in the western hemisphere these days."

"So they can bring in reinforcements," I said.

"From anywhere. A few people thought we could track the incoming, but those of us who stopped and thought about it for more than a second realized - "

"Back up shows up from underwater."

"Exactly. The best we can hope for is the Paranet will keep us apprised if the Fomor suddenly show a weakness, or a thinning of numbers."

I leaned down to get a closer look at the maps. "And we can arrange a hit wherever that is. I love it."

"It'll only work if the White Council and the Wardens back us up, though. I cashed in the only favor Marcone owed us yesterday; right now he's content to defend his territory. We can't count on the einherjar. Unless…"

I shook my head. "I have a good relationship with the guy who owns Monoc Securities. But he made it clear that he doesn't offer a friends-and-family discount. We can't afford them."

"Figured. Which leaves us with three possible sources for man-power: the White Court, the White Council, and the Winter Court."

"Three WCs," I said. "If I had any old-timey British friends, they'd laugh."

"If only," she said, very much not laughing.

"Thomas is the only one in the White Court we can trust, but he doesn't have the pull to get many boots on the ground. Three or four people, maybe, and they'd probably only act as bodyguards. We have to wait for Lara to get back into town. White Council is a possibility. I'm technically still a Warden."

"A senior one, last I checked. And you have an in with a Senior Council member or two."

"True, but the Wardens have largely been on the back foot themselves, spread thin all over the world. It's a maybe."

"And Winter?"

"The Winter Knight doesn't have much influence. He's seen as a tool, in all the ways that can be taken. I've made an impression, but I haven't earned any loyalty. But there is a way around that."

She smirked. "You have an in with one of the Queens."

I smiled and glanced, with flourish, at my truly awesome pocket-watch. "The Winter Lady will be arriving to take me to lunch in just a few minutes."

She finally sat back and crossed her arms, looking at me. "First chance to follow up with the midwife since the birth," she said. If I hadn't known better, I'd have said she was trying not to laugh.

To hide my sour expression, I plucked an apple from the fruit bowl in the middle of the table and took a bite. "Hardy har-har," I said around a mouthful.

She sobered. "First real chance to talk to her since her… promotion."

I nodded. "Yeah. Promoted ahead of me, too." The doorbell rang. "Ah, my ride. I hope." I headed for the front door, sneaking a glance out the front window as I went. In the street, a white limousine idled, just as promised. I tugged the door open, stepping back out of striking range as I did.

A young-appearing man, with a perfectly symmetrical face and a chauffeur's uniform that didn't have a single wrinkle on it stood there. "Sir Knight. The Winter Lady awaits your presence." He had the most wonderful English accent. Seriously, I could have listened to him talk all day.

"Well, mustn't keep her waiting. See you later, Karrin! And don't forget to let Mister back in when he's done hunting raccoons." I shrugged on my duster, slipped into my work boots, and nabbed my staff, leaning against the wall.

"Hey," she said.

I was literally halfway out the front door, apple in my mouth again. I finished my bite and asked, "What?"

"Don't forget, it's your turn to do the dishes."

"I did them yesterday."

"No, you did them yesterday _morning_. I did them after lunch."

I shook my head. "Fine. It's my turn. When I get back." I took another bite and muttered something that may or may not have sounded like, "Ball and chain," and stepped outside. "So, what's your name?" I asked the chauffeur as we walked down the driveway to the limo.

"Faron, Sir."

"Do you often escort her Ladyship?"

"I believe the expression is, 'she has taken a shine to me,' Sir."

We reached the car, and Faron opened a rear door.

"Thank you," I said, and stepped inside, ducking low and holding my staff carefully. The door closed behind me. I settled into the bench seat at the back of the car, and let my eyes adjust. Molly Carpenter, the Winter Lady, was seated on the opposite bench, backing onto the driver's glass partition. She was dressed in a flattering, deep-blue, calf-length skirt, a blouse the color of fresh snow, and her blonde hair was up in a professional bun. Her hand was against the glass, and she had her eyes closed. "Hi Harry, just a sec."

I waited. After a second, during which we started moving, she smiled and opened her eyes. "Ah, that's better. I just wanted to make sure we couldn't be overheard."

"Oh? I thought you'd taken a shine to Faron."

"He's sidhe of the Winter Court. I trust him as far as I can throw him."

"That's my girl. But I take it he's polite?"

"He's less offensive than most."

I smiled. "That's good. I love his voice, I'd hate to have to kill him for you. But seriously, it's nice to finally have a chance to talk."

Her smile faltered. "Um, about that. I'm here on business, Sir Knight. Mostly."

I blinked. "Seriously?"

She nodded, and there was sadness on her face, her smile fading.

"Oh. I see. Well." I straightened up and looked her in the eye. If this had been Mab delivering a command, I would have been approximately 10000% snarkier, but this was _Molly_. She'd been my apprentice for years. Hell, Mab probably arranged for Molly to give me an order simply because she could skip the usual back-and-forth. "How may I serve, my Lady?"

Her face fell. "I need you to kill someone."

Honestly, I really should have seen that coming.


	2. Chapter 2

I simply froze for a second. I had a thousand thoughts, each one scarier than the last, in the span of about 6 seconds. I had no idea what to say, or how to react. So, I froze. I realized pretty quickly that simply sitting there staring at Molly wasn't going to solve my problem, so tried going in a completely different direction.

"What do you think of 'Grace'?" I asked.

She blinked and looked confused. "Uh, I'm sorry, what?"

"For a name? For the little one? It's been a month and I can't really come up with one."

"Harry, did you hear what I said?"

"Clearly. But I'm trying really hard not to think about it. I'm trying not to think about how, if you were the Queen, I'd have told you to shove it, or reminded you that I'd be just fine with dying instead."

"Harry - "

"But you're not Mab. You're Molly. I've known and worked with you for years, and I like to think I know you pretty darn well. And I also like to think that you wouldn't willingly ask me to go commit a murder."

"Harry - "

"And I'm only saying this because I want to make sure you completely understand what it is you're doing here."

"Stop talking!" she shouted.

I stopped. Not because I really wanted to, but because, for a second there, I literally could not speak.

She clamped a hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. She gathered her composure, but did not look at me. "That was mean." She looked up. "But I'm not asking you to commit _murder_. I would never have agreed to relay that command."

I sat back in my seat, though I had no memory of leaning forward. "Well, now I'm confused."

She finally looked at me again. "You and me both. About so many things." She reached down into a satchel at her feet (which were wrapped in shoes even I knew cost more than my old office's rent) and pulled out a manila folder. She leaned forward to hand it to me and ended up on her knees in front of me.

Something in my loins started screaming that I could keep her there, and force her forward. I'd seen a Winter Lady stand up to a Winter Knight before, once a long time ago. She wasn't stronger than me. I could have her down, head first, in no time and she wouldn't be able to stop me from -

6 times 7 is 42. 7 times 8 is 56. 9 times 7 is, uh, 63…

Molly pulled herself up into a third bench seat, running the length of the car.

I held the folder without opening it. "Is this the target?"

She nodded.

I didn't want to open it and did want to open it at the same time. I didn't want to kill anyone… except, I kind of did.

On one hand, I didn't want to be a party to an execution; been there, done that, hated it every time. On the other hand, if I rejected the job, Mab would find some other way of killing this person. If I saw who it was, maybe I could protect them? Usually, that was the Summer Knight's job, but I liked to think of myself as season-neutral.

I flicked open the folder. My brow furrowed.

"Who the hell is this?" The picture was not a close-up. It looked to have been taken from a block away. It was a slightly grainy black and white photo of a very thin, tall, yet broad-shouldered man, gaunt looking. Bad toupee. Suit hanging off him. A sign behind him was in Cyrillic.

"His name is Olan Krejetzy," she said. "And he's a Black Court vampire."

I gasped out a laugh. "Vampire? Black Court?"

"Can't commit murder if the target is already dead, can you?" She had a slight smile back.

"Oh, Molls, you have no idea how much of a relief this is for me."

"About as much of a relief as it was for me when the Queen explained the whole thing?"

"Touche. I mean, the world would definitely be a better place with fewer reanimated corpses eating people. So, I guess I'm not definitely saying no, but I hope I'm getting an explanation."

She nodded. "The short version is: some recent events have convinced the Queen that now is a good time to make some peace. Krejetzy is attempting to undermine that initiative."

"And Mab thinks it's a solid idea to kill the opposition to her peaceful ideas?"

"Bottom line? Yes. And, try not to use her name again."

I blinked. Right. Three uses would basically act as a summoning, or at least get her attention. And if we called while she was putting on her make-up or something, she'd be royally pissed.

"All right. So, M – the Queen, is arranging a peace conference? And Krejetzy is, what? Telling everyone it's a waste of time?"

"We're pretty sure he's making better offers, most of which include blackmail and threats. Or murder. The Queen has few true allies under the Unseelie Accords. When they came into being, it was like the United Nations; didn't really impose peace, as much as a formal, controlled method of dispute. She's hoping to do better."

"When is the conference?"

"Oh, months, at least, maybe a year. Scheduling in the supernatural world is… exceedingly difficult."

"Mm-hmm."

"And it's even worse when someone actively tries to undo your work. Will you take the job?"

"This peace that she's hoping to impose… would it include the Fomor?"

Molly held up both hands, with fingers crossed. "Part of the Fomor's problem is that they've been sitting on the sidelines for centuries, constantly being overpowered, or worse, ignored. The Queen is hoping that by offering them a seat at the table, they'll get some of the recognition they want, and a lot of the recent feuding will die down."

Realization and hope both blossomed in my voice. "With the pleasant side effect that the mortals caught in the cross-fire won't be anymore."

"Win-win. But the problem is, we believe that Krejetzy is working for the Fomor."

I looked up at her. "Why would they have him doing that if they're getting the recognition they want?"

"Honestly, we don't know. Maybe they think the conference is a waste of time, and they can get a bigger slice of the pie this way, maybe they do mean to attend, and want more bargaining chips before they do. In the end, it doesn't matter. Krejetzy is undermining Winter's interests, and needs to be stopped."

"And that's where I come in."

"Sorry, boss," she said, and she actually sounded like Molly, old Molly, my apprentice. Maybe that little sense of nostalgia convinced me. I'm not sure.

"Where is he?"

She took a breath. "That picture is three weeks old. He has a private ship, which he keeps in Greece, the _Ceres_."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, it's a little on the nose. The point is, he left Greece 18 days ago. We lost track of him for a while, but 4 days ago, a selkie found him in Miami."

My head rocked back. "Lara's on a cross-country tour. Miami is White Court territory."

Molly nodded. "I doubt it's a coincidence."

"Dammit. I'll have to call Thomas. And I guess asking Lara to come home is out of the question."

Molly nodded. "It would be a show of weakness she can't afford."

"I guess I would need to get to Miami. If I did this."

"You would have to be very careful. Krejetzy has an entourage."

"More Black Court."

"A few, but the big hiccup is a contingent of bodyguards, hired from Monoc Security."

I dropped my apple and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

"Wish I was."

"Well, that's awkward. On the other hand, most them are already dead, too."

"So you'll do it?"

I found myself nodding. And thinking. A chance to undermine the Fomor… "Would Fix stand in my way?"

She sighed. "Ultimately, that's up to Titania. Usually, yes, but Summer has an interest in seeing the peace conference go ahead. It's possible there are some machinations in play that I don't know about. And of course, there's the personal thing."

"Personal thing?"

"He's… not the same person you remember, Harry. Lily's death was a blow to him. Sarissa is his Lady, now, but… it's not the same."

I nodded for a few more seconds, considering everything. Major stakes, check. Possible personal grudge match, check. Pretty much guaranteed misery, check. It was starting to sound like something I would do. "I'll need a little time to make some preparations."

"You accept?" That was the third time she'd asked, and I felt an odd need to give her an answer.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do. The potential payoff… definitely worth it. Though, I guess we won't have time for lunch, after all. No time to have an actual conversation."

She sank back in her seat. "I know you worry."

"You still go to Sunday dinners at home?"

She nodded, a smile growing. "Yeah. Still give the hobbit piggy-backs, still help my mother with the dishes. Still scratch Mouse behind the ears until I lose feeling in my fingers."

"Well, then I'm _less_ worried. You promised to explain everything to your parents, and I trust you to keep that promise."

She sighed, and some of her tension seemed to vanish. Her shoulders slumped, just a little. "As soon as I'm ready. As soon as I can wrap my own head around it. Oh, and for the record, Grace is a lovely name. But if you're going for some sort of dichotomy, what about Persephone?"

I shook my head. "Putting aside the recent encounter with her husband, I'd say good idea, but I already nicknamed someone else Persephone. And before you start on other virtues, I already know a Faith, a Hope, and a Charity."

"Huh. Well, I'm sure you'll come up with something."

"Eventually." We were quiet a moment. "I guess I should go back now?"

She stretched and knocked on the glass partition, and we almost instantly changed direction. I'm not saying the car turned; I'm saying it suddenly was going a different way, with no sensation of movement. "Just do me one favor?"

"Sure."

"Don't be reckless."

"Reckless? Me?" I'm sure I sounded genuinely offended.

"Your plan of attack last night was completely irresponsible."

"What are you talking about?"

"Frontal attack? Walking straight up the driveway?"

"I had a shield ready. I needed to draw attention to let everyone else get in position. And we had the layout of the house, and the ward locations. And where did you hear this?"

"And your conversation with Thomas? What if the servitors heard something they could use against you?"

"I never say anything I'm not prepared for my enemies to hear. Did you talk to Thomas last night?"

"Of course. I've got him on speed-dial."

One of my eyebrows lifted. "On your cell phone."

"Yes, he's number 6."

"On your cell phone," I repeated, more slowly.

She leaned back in her seat yet again. "Yes, Harry. I have a cell phone. And it hasn't fried on me yet."

"Wizards, technology, boom, you know the drill."

"I do."

"But it isn't happening."

"No. And I know what you're trying to say: The Lady's Mantle is influencing me."

"I was more thinking it might be changing your fundamental nature, but why split hairs?"

"Harry, I'm still me."

I didn't say anything. I just looked at her. I considered everything she had said. I thought about the fact that she still maintained contact with her family, still smiled, still felt uncomfortable occasionally… still seemed _human_.

"I… I know you are, grasshopper. But knowing how Mantles work – I mean, having real, scary, first person experience – I'm always going to worry a little. I won't be able to let this go, not completely. Knowing you're still you, mostly, I worry less, but I know how easy it is to…" I struggled with the grammar. "Be changed."

She took my hand. "I won't lie. I still can, but I won't. I'm scared. Freaking terrified, if I'm completely honest. But knowing that you're in this too, going through something similar, knowing that I can call you, and you'll…"

"Show up?"

"Yeah. That all makes it easier. Just a little less scary. And I have to say, it's nice being able to use some modern conveniences again without having to go back to my apartment. The internet can be really useful."

"Will's been showing me the best parts for years. But he says it's 90% porn, or arguing. But rarely arguing about porn, for some reason."

"Yeah, the arguing is annoying."

My other eyebrow lifted in reaction to what she didn't say.

"The point is, I know there's been a change, but it's mostly external. It's not who I am, it's just the type of magic I use."

I took a deep breath. Let it out. "Let's make a deal."

Suddenly deadly serious, she said, "Careful."

"I know. But this one is simple. We'll watch each other's backs, and faces. And we'll let the other one know if we see them changing. Agreed?"

She considered for a moment. And I mean an actual, dictionary-definition moment, taking about a minute and a half, before she spoke. In a very quiet voice, she said, "Agreed."

I tried to ignore the slight shiver that went up my back.

Molly dropped me back at Karrin's house. I walked inside and she poked her head out of the kitchen. "Hey. Did you eat? You were barely gone half an hour."

"Eat, no. But I think I got exactly what we need."

Karrin came out of the kitchen, Mister at her heels. She'd dressed in shorts and one of my smaller shirts – which I found damn sexy on her – and her leg brace. Mister ran at me. "She's going to give you Winter footsoldiers?"

"No." I stooped down and swept up my extremely over-sized cat in one arm right before he tackled me. "But if we play our cards right, we have a chance to bitchslap the Fomor, and put the White Court in our debt."

"Seriously? How?"

I handed her the Krejetzy file from my non-cat-occupied hand. "Read that. I want your tactical assessment."

"What are you going to do?"

"I have some phone calls to make," I said, stepping past her into the kitchen. "And some dishes to do."

Two hours later, allies had been called, arrangements had been made, and the crock pot was cleaner than it had been in weeks.

There were also four extra-large pizza boxes sitting empty in the recycling bin.

I stood in the doorway to the living room, leaning against the wall; Karrin, Marci, Andi and Thomas sat in various chairs.

Thomas looked great as always, the ass, so I assumed his previous night had been… invigorating. He was talking. "This is stupid," he said.

"I have to agree," Marci said.

"Just the four of us?" Andi asked. "To hunt a Black Court vampire? Aren't they, like, the nastiest things out there?"

"Not quite, but they are straight out of Stoker," Thomas said. "Hell, the White Court arranged for Stoker to publish so that everyday folks would know how to deal with them."

"Which the rest of us are all very grateful for," I said. "Bottom line, even one blampire is worse than a dozen Fomor."

Thomas' head tilted. "'Blampire'?"

"That's the scientific name."

His eyes narrowed. "Do you call me a 'whampire'?"

"Only when you're not around. Back on topic, yes, only the four of us. Butters is already out of town, the professional mercenaries I know are all too expensive or hard to find. And Will and Georgia aren't risking making Carlie an orphan. End of discussion. Even with access to a badass babysitter, it's better if they stay home. It was long conversation, but I convinced them."

"But you're still bringing your brainchild?" Marci asked. She quickly slapped a hand over her mouth to hide a smile, like she had just realized what she said.

"Okay, five points for surprising yourself with an accidental joke. But yes, I'm bringing her along."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Andi asked. "I mean, didn't you tell Waldo that bringing the other skull out was a bad idea?"

"Yes, but I'm not planning to use her. It's just…" I trailed off, unsure of my words.

Andi eyed me. "It's just what?"

Karrin answered for me. "She won't respond to anyone else's touch."

"Say what?"

"She won't come out of the skull, or even light up, unless I'm the one who touches the skull, okay?" I said. "And having been inside one while I was doing the ghost thing, I… I don't want her to get lonely, all right?"

Everyone was quiet for a second as, I guessed, they all tried not to laugh at me. Finally, Marci spoke up. "But Karrin's not coming?"

"Still have a war to manage here," she said.

"Yes," I said, "especially since the Fomor are already super-angry, but if we succeed, they'll be ultra-super-angry."

"I'm not much use in the field right now, anyway," she said, giving the knee brace a solid rap. "I'm better put to use coordinating, planning."

"Like Batgirl when she turned into Oracle," Marci said.

"Ten more points for the bat-reference," I said. "Thomas, did you reach Lara?"

"Yeah, just before I got here. She's safe and sound, landed in Miami just after 4 this morning. No attempts on her life yet, no threats, no anything. But she definitely can't leave."

"Why not?" Andi asked. "That's the first thing a sane person would do."

"Preaching to the choir, Red. But Miami is a House Malvora holding."

"What does that mean?"

"They feed on fear," Karrin said. "The Raith family feed on lust - "

"Intimacy, actually," Thomas said.

Karrin gave him a look. "_Right_," she said, though her tone said the opposite. "_Intimacy_. The various Court Houses like different emotions. But I'm guessing showing fear to the Malvora is even worse than showing it to anyone else."

"Never show a predator an easy target," he said, and made it sound like a proverb. "Particularly one they will actually draw strength from. Main reason she's there is to face them down. The other Houses need to be reminded who's on top from time to time. She's not going to doing anything stupid, because she never does, but if anything happens to her…"

"That would be bad, right?" Andi ventured.

Thomas and I exchanged a glance. Lara was the power behind the throne; she'd held their father in a psychic thrall for years, and I couldn't say I blamed her after he had done the same to her for decades. But if anything happened to her, Lord Raith would not be able to function, and another House would usurp power. But no one else really knew that, and it was better if it stayed that way.

"It would be a huge blow to House Raith," I finally said. "Possibly destabilizing. And let's just say the other Houses are less interested in maintaining the peace."

"We'd have more predators on the ground," Marci said.

"And thus, more victims." I let that sink in for a second. "Now, we aren't going to be completely alone. We will link up with Lara's people, and Ramirez is going to meet us there tomorrow if his duties allow."

"Um, Harry?"

"Thomas?"

"Lara doesn't exactly travel with a full regiment of bodyguards."

My heart sank just a notch. "What are you saying?"

"She _might_ have a dozen people. Including herself and Justine."

"Seriously?"

"Again, taking a lot of soldiers into a Malvora stronghold… not a way to earn their respect."

I took a breath and scratched the back of my neck. "Okay. We can still work with this."

"Sure, it's easy," Karrin said. "Just kill Krejetzy before he gets to Lara."

Thomas scratched his chin. "Well, when you put it that way, I'm sure the four of us, ten vanilla guys and a single Warden should be able to take out a centuries-old murder machine and however many mini-murder machines and psycho-slaves he cooks up."

"Which takes time. Black Court vamps are nest-makers. They like to gather their forces before making a move."

"She's right," I said. "Unfortunately, he's been there for 4 days. He may already have nested. And the White Council is stretched too thin to loan us any more Wardens. Ramirez already asked."

"Oh," Thomas said. "Well, when you put it that way, what are we waiting for?"

Apparently, nothing. A few minutes later, I loaded a couple bags in Thomas' vehicle, laying them next to the Alpha's bags. He had swapped the Mercedes for something even bigger; an older, gray, military spec Humvee. Hey, if you're heading into battle, better to bring armour.

I came back to the house to grab my staff. Karrin was at the door, holding it. She handed it over slowly. "You'd better come back."

"I will."

"I'm serious. If you die in Chicago, I can at least claim the body. If something happens in Miami…"

"Oh, Karrin." I took her in my arms. "If something happens in Miami, there probably won't be a body left to claim."

She pulled back and punched me in the chest. "Don't joke."

"Hey. I'm going to try things your way. I'll be subtle. No direct confrontation. Pinky swear." I held up the baby finger on my right hand.

She wrapped her same finger around mine, then tugged. I bent down, and she kissed me. "Be less stupid than usual."

"Promise." Then I kissed her again, and headed for the car.

I hefted myself into the passenger seat.

"You sure this is going to work?" Thomas asked.

"It did in the Chronicles of Amber. I can't think of a good reason why it wouldn't work for us."

"You do know that _you're_ why I don't use the radio or the Bluetooth, right?"

"Yeah. I got that." I took a breath. "Okay. We have one more stop to make before we go."

Thomas nodded and got the engine rumbling. He already knew where I was talking about.

It was Saturday, and Maggie was playing with her foster siblings. Young Harry and big sister Alicia were teaching her – somewhat successfully – to use a baseball glove. Alicia… looked a lot like Molly, only with darker colouring. Same infectious smile, same athletic build, wearing the hell out of those shorts…

I looked away while I still could, before anything else inside me could notice her.

As I watched, Maggie tossed a ball at Harry with that weak, over-hand technique everyone starts with. He had to drop almost to the ground to catch it. "You throw like a girl!" he said.

"I am a girl!" she shouted back, and she looked so proud of herself, I decided right then and there that 'throw like a girl' was the dumbest expression I had ever heard.

"Good job, Mags, you keep practicing," Alicia said. She saw me standing next to her mother and took a few steps closer. "Hi, Mr. Dresden."

"I think you can call me Harry, now," I said, extending my hand. "I understand belated congratulations are in order."

She shook. "Thanks. Yeah, University of Portland. First choice, early acceptance." She smiled and shrugged, but seemed to be vibrating with excitement.

"That's awesome for you. Keep it weird."

"Oh, guaranteed. Whoop!" Her eyes snapped to the side and her glove hand shot out like lightning – she caught the baseball a second before it would have taken out my nose. She smiled again, a little embarrassed.

Charity laughed and took the ball. "Nice one."

"Wow," I said. "Nice reflexes. My face thanks you."

"Sorry!" came a little voice.

"That's okay, Maggie," Charity said. "No one got hurt. Just be more careful next time, okay?"

"Okay."

"Good. Now come over here for a minute. Your dad needs to talk to you."

I bent down next to Mouse as she walked over. The dog had been lying in the sun, basking a bit, but now he lifted his head. Alicia very diplomatically took a few steps away and she and her mother started tossing the ball with Young Harry.

I addressed Maggie and Mouse. "Hey, kiddo. I just wanted to stop by and let you know, I'll be out of town for a couple of days."

"Why?" Her face sank, and with it, my soul.

"I have to go help some people. It's… it's my job."

She looked down. "Oh. So no story tonight?"

"I'm sorry, Maggie, not tonight."

She looked me in the eyes, and I had to blink. "But you'll come back, right?"

"Yeah, yeah I'll come back."

"Promise?"

…_Don't you dare_…

Fuck it. I dare.

"Pinky swear." I held up my hand, little finger out.

She grinned and grabbed it with her whole throwing hand. "Okay?" I asked.

"Okay." She nodded.

"See you soon, kiddo. Now go play. You have to teach Harry how to throw."

"Oh, yeah!" She spun and charged back on to the lawn.

I turned to Mouse. He was staring at me, looking a little worried. "Black Court vampire," I said.

He groaned. Then he huffed, and stood.

"No, no, I have back up. I appreciate it, but your job is here, now."

He looked at Maggie, and groaned again, but it was a little one. He turned back to me, sat, and huffed again.

"Thanks. It makes doing what I have to easier, knowing you're watching her." He tilted his head, and I rubbed it. "You're my family. Both of you. Will you be good?"

He sneezed. I took that as a yes.

"This is where the Way opens?" Thomas asked.

"Yup."

"I've driven down this road a hundred times, and I've even seen it."

"That's the way it works."

"This is an empty lot," Marci said. "Isn't it? Looking this way is making me gr cross-eyed. But I thought the Ways had to have connections to significant things?" Thomas had parked on the road. There were no other cars for about fifty feet in either direction.

"They do." I looked out at the quarter-acre lot, with several large dirt heaps up front blocking the view of the relatively flat area behind. "And we need a clear path, which is hard to find in a city with this much traffic. Open the sunroof."

Thomas just looked at me. "What makes you think I haven't tried yet?"

I sighed, and tried to make it sound indignant. So much for my General Patton moment. "Fine. Just drive through that gap." I pointed at a dirt pile that was slightly smaller than the others. A sign on one of the piles, mostly faded now, advised that this was private property, and trespassers would be yadda yadda. The White Council had owned the lot for about forty years, and some strategically placed charms and wards kept people from asking why it hadn't been developed, or even remembering that there was an empty lot in the neighborhood at all.

Thomas put us in a lower gear and trundled into the lot, sandwiched between a gated condo development, and, uh, another gated condo development. I tried to ignore the roller-coastery feeling I got as we lurched over the mound. He paused once we were on level ground again. "Which way?"

I touched the amulet on my neck, with a magnificent, star-shaped red gemstone affixed to it. The stone was my mother's legacy; a lifetime spent exploring the Ways and the Nevernever itself, all recorded in her voice, accessible only to my touch. The information was permanent, but the access points to the various Ways she had known occasionally shifted. The gemstone always provided info on the metaphysically nearest Way unless I asked it a specific question. An echo of her voice started rolling through my mind.

_For some reason, the lands here are calm, relatively immutable. It's kind of boring, if I'm being honest. But I guess if you're looking for a vacation spot where the sun literally never sets, you could do worse…_

I felt a slight tug to the right, and pointed.

"Vacation spot?" Thomas mumbled.

My head snapped around. He looked about as confused as I felt. "You heard that?"

"That was… her voice."

I nodded slowly. "Yeah. She must have tuned it so we both could…" I trailed off, so as not to ruin the moment. A small smile crept across his face. He had more memories of our mother, which is to say, _any_, since she died the night I was born. But the chance to hear her voice again…

"Are you two okay?" Andi said.

We looked back. Both women looked concerned.

"We're fine," I said. "Just a magic thing."

They exchanged an uncertain glance, but stopped staring at us.

Thomas cleared his throat. "Right. That way." He got the big truck positioned, and I hopped out.

I stood about ten feet in front of the Hummer, and raised my staff. "_Aparturum_," I said, and brought the staff down in a quick arc. A red line of energy remained hanging in the air. I put my hands together and sank them into that line, like I was trying to open an elevator door. Then, with a little more willpower, I pulled it apart.

The line widened into a circle, and even as the edges moved away, beyond my reach, I kept up the mental push. The portal widened in a rough circle, sliding into the ground soundlessly. On the other side, I saw a grassy field, with a simple dirt road running down its middle. Large trees, some with purple leaves and orange bark, and none of them familiar, flanked the field from about 100 feet on either side. The sun was shining, far brighter on that side than on this.

I took in the sight for a second, then turned and jogged back to the truck, and clambered inside. As I closed the door, I heard Andi say, "That is so cool."

Thomas produced a pair of sunglasses. "And we're off," he said.


	3. Chapter 3

"This is so _new_!"

I smiled as my other daughter took in everything she could. Or as much as a cloud of sparkly, green ember-lights could take things in.

I'd had a shadow of a rogue angel stuck in my head for a few years, and though we hadn't started out as friends, she'd gradually turned into something much greater than a tempting voice in my head. We'd become close. She'd honestly known me better than I knew myself, in many ways. We'd been intimate in a way simple friends never could be, though we had never been physical lovers. But in the end, when my life had been threatened, she'd given herself to save me.

That act of nobility, of sacrifice, of _love_, had created our offspring. (Or at least that's what I figured had happened.) A fully-formed being of pure spirit energy, gifted with the knowledge of both of her parents. And now that she'd been born from my mind, thankfully without the use of an axe, she was curious about everything new.

The problem was, she'd been completely lethargic and uninterested in everything she _already knew_, which, considering her mother had been around at the dawn of time and had been interacting with humans for millennia, was… well, _everything_.

I'd let her out of the skull into the truck a few minutes after we crossed the portal. And for the first time in a month, she was excited. She was interested in something. So, she hadn't been _weak_ all this time; she'd been _bored_.

Sigh. Kids.

"Is that the sun?" she asked.

"It's the spiritual reflection of the sun," I said.

"Wow! It doesn't hurt at all."

"It can't; you're spiritual, too."

"I don't recognize those trees; what are they called?"

"I don't know."

"The air feels different; what's in it?"

"Uh, ectoplasm? I think."

"There are mountains with no snow over there; how is that possible?"

"I don't think it's ever snowed there."

"Is that river really water? Or just a reflection of water?"

"I think it's just a reflection."

And on, and on, _and on_. I finally got the kid to come out of her shell, and she came out running. I very pointedly ignored the others as they tried not to laugh at me.

I like to think I managed most of the questions well, but she did trip me up just before we reached the Miami end of the trip.

"We're about to leave the Nevernever. You need to get back in the skull," I said.

"Can we come back?" she asked as her light cloud condensed back into the skull's eyes.

"Absolutely," I said, "as long as you're good."

"Oh, okay. Um, can you define 'good'?"

I opened my mouth, and nothing came out. I glanced at Thomas, and he held up a hand, which meant, _You're on your own_.

I tried the werewolves in the back, but they looked about as uncertain as I felt. That was a hell of a question. Did I go the philosophical route, and try for an abstract definition? Dictionary-definite? Did I define it as, 'not bad'? I suppose, in the end, I did what every parent ends up doing: I took the pragmatic route.

"I'll give you a complete definition later, but it includes doing as you're told. I mean, told by me. As your father."

"Okay, we can start with that."

That suddenly felt woefully incomplete. "I'm not saying don't question me. Or don't think for yourself. It's just… the world can be very dangerous. And I don't want you to get hurt. And you aren't as familiar with those dangers as I am."

"I appreciate that. I don't want you to get hurt either."

"Oh. Well, thank you."

"You're welcome. Oh, are you about to open a portal back to the real world?"

"I am, yeah."

"Okay. That place is boring. I'm going back to sleep." Her lights went out.

"Wow," I said, putting the skull down.

"The new girl is very inquisitive," Andi said.

"She is that," I said, rubbing my eyes. "Huh. New. Maybe I could call her 'Nova'?"

"You mean like from Planet of the Apes?" Marci asked. "Or that series on PBS?"

"Right," I said, "scratch that one, too."

Twenty minutes later, we were driving in mid-afternoon weekend Miami traffic. The sun was shining, the windows were down (Thomas wasn't willing to risk the A/C around me) and we managed not to get caught in stop-and-go more than twice.

Lara had a room at the Marriott Marquis downtown, and Thomas worked his way in that direction.

"Who's in charge of Malvora these days?" I asked. I had raise my voice over the traffic.

"After you killed Vitto and Cesarina, there was a bit of a struggle. Eventually, Danicka, my third of fourth cousin, took over. Mostly by getting the competition killed."

"Competition?"

"Her sister and brother."

"Gee, sounds like she's a people person."

"All things considered, she seems to be the least of several evils," he said, "which means she probably isn't. Tough; she'd have to be. Pigheaded. Might have some anger issues."

"Sounds like a doll."

There was a pause in the conversation as a flurry of honking and a generous application of brakes and swearing accompanied someone running a red.

"What about 'Angel'?" he asked after he stopped describing really uncomfortable sexual acts to the other drivers.

"What?"

"For a name."

"Uh, it's a little…"

"Appropriate?"

"_Ironic_. Considering her parents are a human and a _Fallen_ Angel."

"Hmph." He paused, thinking. "Angela?"

"No."

"Angelina?"

"Definitely not."

"Angelica?"

"Stars and stones, Thomas."

Andi piped up. "Oh, come on. You could sing 'Angie' to her as a lullaby."

"Please don't encourage him."

A few minutes later, Thomas pulled up to the hotel. The entrance way was recessed within the building on a driveway that the hotel proper covered from all sides. As we stopped with the front doors on our left, I glanced right. Two huge stone griffins stood guard between us and the street.

We all hopped out, Thomas nonchalantly tossing the keys to a valet while I made certain the wooden skull was settled in my duster's pocket. We headed inside. Thomas didn't have to say anything; the concierge, a middle-aged, balding fellow of medium build, appeared at his elbow as if – dare I say it? – by magic.

"Mr. Raith, a pleasure to see you again, sir."

Thomas swept his sunglasses off. "Carl, it's always nice to see you, too. Has my sister settled in?"

"Yes, sir. The penthouse is yours, of course." He produced one of those plastic access cards from an inner pocket. "Your key card, Mr. Raith."

"Thank you, Carl. You'll see to our luggage?"

"Of course, sir."

"Good man." Thomas shook the guy's hand. I watched, but I saw no tip. My guess was the Raith family spent a lot of money here, or Lara had fed on Carl before. The act of feeding itself could become addictive for the feed-ee, and inspire a remarkable devotion.

Of course, it was also possible the guy was just _really_ good at his job. What did I know?

The four of us filed into an elevator, and Thomas waved the access card in front of a little plastic protrusion on the button panel. Something beeped, and my brother hit a button. It was above number 41.

I've blown out elevators before, just by repeatedly using them. I dreaded the idea of having to tromp down 41 flights of stairs, so I just stood in the corner and tried not to think about breaking things. I swear the air got thinner as we shot up into the sky.

The doors finally opened.

On a _very_ sweet suite. I'm talking full-floor penthouse. Karrin's entire house could have fit in there. Twice. There were floor-to-ceiling windows, plus skylights, high ceilings, carpet soft enough to sleep on, a full kitchen, a conference table in its own glass-walled area, and an enclosed solarium/sitting room at the opposite end. Flanking that, there were four doors in the far wall; I guessed two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

"Gentlemen," Thomas said. He stepped off the elevator and greeted a pair of serious-looking men standing to one side.

"Mr. Raith," the smaller of the two men said. His eyes were quick, taking in all four of us. He adjusted his feet and put his weight forward. He'd looked us over, and I saw him decide each of us was a threat. Good for him. Even if people don't know I'm a wizard, I'm 6'5" and pretty solid. I was also holding a 6' long, inch-thick oak stick. Most people would also have dismissed Marci and Andi; honestly, each of them was just as dangerous as Thomas or I. But usually their 'person' camouflage deflected suspicion. This guy had obviously seen Some Things during his employment.

His partner, who could look me right in the eye, but didn't, and was a good bit wider than me, just undid his suit button and looked relaxed.

I just stood and let Thomas do the talking. I knew I could kill either of them without breaking a sweat; half of me figured it wasn't worth the effort, the other was in more of a 'what-the-hell?' kind of mood.

No. No it wasn't. I blinked. Murder is wrong. Actions have consequences. Murder is wrong. And I might have to work with these guys, and there was no point in breeding animosity. Right now, anyway. And murder is wrong.

Figured if I told myself that enough, maybe it would stick. Eventually.

"I called ahead. My sister is expecting me and three… _friends_." He grinned in a devilish way.

The talker looked up at me again. I bounced a friendly eyebrow. He looked at the werewolves, and while Marci just smiled, Andi put a hand on her hip and _smiled_.

The guy nodded. He was in the know about the Raith's proclivities. Or at least Lara's. Either way, he said, "Come with me."

We followed Mr. Talkative to the solarium, in front of the door to the bedroom on the left. Lara was standing in there, looking out a window, taking in the sun while she spoke on a cell phone.

To say Lara is attractive is like saying a fire is hot, or water is wet. It's not so much a description, as a simple statement of fact. And that's when she's not trying. When she really turns it on, better analogies would include, 'hurricanes are a little windy,' or 'electrons are pretty small,' or 'governments can occasionally be hard to trust.'

Beside me, Marci looked around. When she saw Lara, her eyes widened just a little. Then she touched a finger to her lips. "Uh…" she said.

"Yeah, she has that effect on everybody," I said quietly. I glanced at the bodyguard, who was also looking.

Andi, who was usually the prettiest girl in most rooms, crossed her arms and lifted an eyebrow. She may also have arched her back.

Lara ended her call and turned to see us. She turned her phone off, then came out of the solarium with a smile. "Thomas," she said, parting her arms and going in for a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey, big sister." He kissed her cheek, too.

She turned to me. "Ah, Harry Dresden: The man who won't stay down."

"Not for lack of trying," I said. I didn't try to hug her, or shake her hand, and she didn't offer.

She glanced to my sides, saw the girls, and smiled a little wider. She extended a hand to Andi first. "Hello. Lara Raith."

"Um. Andi. Hi." The redhead took her hand. The shake was quick, and Lara withdrew her hand a little too fast. That made some sense. Andi was in love with Butters, mutual, reciprocal love, and had been as physically and emotionally close to him as it was possible to be. Love was anathema to the White Court; their demons literally could not bear the touch of it. Love left an impression on human skin. The closer to the surface, the more dependent upon the demon a vampire was at a given moment, the more painful the touch would be. I'd seen Thomas let his skin burn just for a touch from Justine. Speaking of which…

I glanced around, and noted my brother doing the same thing. It seemed Justine was not in the suite.

Lara turned to Marci, and one of her eyebrows lifted. "Well, hello. I'm Lara."

"Hi," she said back, though it came out more as _Hhhhhi_. "Marci. Nice to meet you." They shook hands. It lasted a bit longer than the other shake.

"Pleasure," Lara said.

Thomas focused on Lara again. "So, sis. Anybody try to kill you today?"

Lara's smile became much more wry. She turned her head. "No. But I haven't even had lunch yet. Would you all like to join me?"

"Sure, why not?"

She finally let go of Marci's hand and looked at the bodyguard. "Lunch for six, in twenty minutes."

"Yes, ma'am." He stepped away, and was soon talking on a hardline in the penthouse's kitchen.

"My assistant is in the far room. She's assembling some information you may find useful."

I didn't turn my head, but Thomas started heading in that direction.

I glanced around to make sure the bodyguards weren't in earshot. "Why are you here?" I asked.

She didn't move, but I could sense that she was suddenly more tense. "Inspecting financial holdings."

"Uh-huh. You can send people for that."

"I _like_ inspecting holdings."

"Right. A little bird told me people have to be reminded of who's on top."

"Oh?"

"I figure some folks have been asking questions."

"What sorts of questions?"

"About daddy, mostly."

She took a breath and glanced at the bedroom, where Thomas was just slipping through the door. "Boys," she said, and made it a curse. "You're good for so few things." She glanced meaningfully at Marci again.

Marci looked uncertain, but licked her lips.

"Hey, knock that off," I said. Though I had to admit, a piece of me didn't want her to. A piece of me wanted her to turn that mojo my way… not that she needed it, since I could very easily –

Her eyes snapped back to me. She made a sound that might have been mistaken for a cat's purr.

The square root of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides, Harry. Sum of the square…

"We're here because there's a Black Court vamp gunning for you."

She saw me shake it off, and the sides of her mouth went up a bit. "In the conference room," she said, and started walking.

Shortly after, lunch was served (a smattering of Italian specialties, mostly) and the bodyguards were not invited to join us. Thomas and Lara sat on either side of Justine, pure white hair scraped back in a bun held in place with two black sticks; Andi and Marci flanked me on the facing side. I dug into some lasagna as Justine slid a folder across the table. She gave me a professional smile, but there was warmth to it; I thought of her as my sister-in-law, and I liked to think the feeling was mutual.

"We don't have much, but what little there is, I've compiled for you," Justine said.

The lasagna was good. Not mind-blowing, but darn tasty. Full fat. The folder, in comparison, was rather anemic. I took another bite and flipped it open. I was greeted with a picture of Krejetzy, different from the one I had seen that morning, older. He was at the back of a room, with a few other supernatural entities I knew or knew of; a Jorogumo, a couple of bugbears, an ipotane, and at least one Loveland frog. There were also several blurry places, like the things in the picture had not allowed the camera to focus on them.

"When was this taken?" I asked.

"Sixteen years ago," Justine said. "It was the last time a gathering of Unseelie Accords signatories included any Black Court representatives, in Zagreb."

"Uh-huh. _How_ was this taken?"

"Carefully, and secretly," Lara said.

"Was Krejetzy the only one to attend?"

"Yes," Lara said. "He voiced concern over the growing strength of mortals in this age of information, and suggested that the Internet be destroyed."

I snorted. "Lot of porn lovers would be unhappy."

"Why do you think the White Court argued against it? Not to mention that it had become so ubiquitous in such a short time, that getting rid of it would've been almost impossible without greater resources than even we had. A similar argument happened over the printing press. It was ultimately agreed that destroying the medium itself would not work, as it would simply arise again."

"My guess is he didn't take the rebuff well."

"He was basically shut down, and nearly laughed out of the place. After that, he vanished."

"That was the last time he was seen?"

"Until now. Since that time, whenever there's been a gathering, or a party, Mavra is the only Black Court representative to be seen."

I grunted and made a fist with my left hand. I still owed Mavra for some burn scars.

"You ever meet him yourself?"

She looked cagey for a second, like she was deciding what to say. Finally, she started with, "The only other time we met, was in France during the First World War."

"What were you doing in the First World War?"

"Running a brothel. What else would I have been doing? There's hardly a war in history where a White Court House wasn't nearby."

Which made sense. Anger, fear, hatred despair all run close to the surface among soldiers in dire situations. _And once they get away from the front, many of them would need a reminder of their humanity: a warm embrace; a gentle word; a good, hard f-_

"Why was Krejetzy there?"

"He was destroying records."

"Records?" Marci asked.

She sighed. "The First World War was a turning point in modern history. Dozens of empires and old regimes fell. The world needed a clean break, and to forget about some of the things that had come before, such as the semi-regular slaughter of mortals."

"By then, we'd proven that we could do it just fine ourselves," I said.

"And so, the records – diaries, papers, library and church records – had to go," Lara finished.

"Wait," Marci said. "Are you saying that all this supernatural stuff, that we can't talk about with regular people; it used to be common knowledge?"

"Open secrets," I said. "A bit in North America, not so much in the British Isles, where the White Council actively suppressed things, but in Europe? Asia? Most of Africa? Yeah. A hundred to a hundred and fifty years ago, everybody knew, but nobody talked about it."

"Exactly," Lara said, looking at Marci. "And most who did remember, wanted it all forgotten. Through the lens of history, the twentieth century is an aberration. The world you now know is the real world."

"That is… very strange to think about," Marci said.

"How did you run into him?" I asked.

"He tended to stay near the front lines, easier to work unimpeded and unnoticed. But with the way the front stabilized for so long, he took… furlough."

"Hold it," I said. "The Black Court's power was broken by the First World War. Whose authority was Krejetzy acting under?"

"The various Courts have a long history of mutual trust - " I snorted and grabbed some garlic bread " - and cooperation. And this was before it became common knowledge that Stoker was our agent."

Something clicked. "It was the turning point, wasn't it? When you met him? He figured it out."

"It was 1916. I had no reason to fear him. I assumed he was reporting that he was finished and would move to the south of the country. I met him outside a small town about ten miles from the Front, in a ruined farmhouse.

"He surprised me, took me by the neck and told me that if he didn't know that killing me would set the whole of the White Court upon him, he would have done it. He told me that he knew about Stoker, and was not pleased. He also told me to warn my father that he would have revenge. Not long after that meeting, the remaining survivors of the Black Court became fully aware of our actions, and stopped cooperating with us. My father couldn't move against him since he hadn't killed me, without acknowledging the Stoker gambit, something he wasn't prepared to do immediately."

"I always wondered when that little falling out happened. How did he figure it out?"

"I can only assume he was reading the records before destroying them, and stumbled on something."

"Great. So he's smart and informed."

"He's barely two hundred years old, but yes, very smart. He was a spy for the Hapsburgs before he was turned. Managing information was always his specialty."

"Managing?" Andi asked.

"Finding, manipulating, destroying," I said. "I'm assuming bribery, threats and murder were his secondary specialties."

"Just so," Lara confirmed. "He was the man they called when someone had to be erased. Not just the information they had, but their friends, family, servants; anyone information might have been passed to. He was ruthless and thorough."

"You sound almost admiring."

"I don't care for him personally, if that's what you're getting at, but he had a function, and he fulfilled it. And still does, apparently."

"Don't suppose you have any idea where he might be?"

"No. Though, he would prefer somewhere hard to notice, away from the lights. A quieter neighborhood, perhaps a place full of… undesirables."

"Undesirables?" Marci asked, and all at once, her voice was much less infatuated with Lara.

"The poor," I said, voice tight. "The homeless. Criminals. Drug addicts. All of the most vulnerable. And least likely to be missed."

Lara gave me a nod.

"Terrific," Thomas said. "That narrows it down to about a third of the city."

"We don't have the time or the ability to search the whole city, Harry," Marci said.

"We don't need to," I said. "I made some arrangements before we left Chicago." I looked at Lara. "Is there any way I can get up to the roof?"

A few minutes later, the talkative bodyguard brought me up to the room of the hotel. It was a hell of a view, city on one side and ocean on the other.

I was also darn windy. My duster caught the air instantly and started flopping around. "Wait here," I said over the wind.

He nodded. "No problem. I'm not much for heights."

Remembering a certain winter a couple of years ago, and a few gruffs that just did not want to leave me alone, I had to agree with him. "I won't be long."

I turned and headed for a spot out of sight behind a large air conditioning unit. Was Mr. Talkative couldn't see me, I took a breath and uttered a Name, pushing just a little willpower into it. Not enough to command, but just enough to notice.

After a few seconds, a human-looking being, about a foot and a half tall, dropped out of the sky and hovered a few feet away on gossamer wings. His hair was purple and fine, drifting in the currents in defiance of gravity and common sense, and he was dressed in what looked like leather pants and pieces of a Coke can, cut and re-shaped to fit his contours.

The Little Folk are often ignored in Faerie, and are all but invisible in the real world, which means they can pretty much go anywhere unnoticed. And as long as you kept them plied with pizza, as I did, they would be quite loyal.

"My lord!" Toot-Toot said. He bobbed a little in the wind.

I lifted a hand in salute. "Major General. Good to see you. Glad you were able to follow without any difficulty."

"Most of us, Sir Knight! There were a few stragglers, but I got them in line!"

"Never doubted it. You run a tight ship, Toot."

His bluster died a bit, and he dropped his voice. "Uh, we _fly_, Harry. We don't have ships."

I bit the inside of my cheek on purpose for the second time in as many days. "You're right, that was an error on my part."

His voice bounced back up. "Think nothing of it! I won't!"

I smiled. "Is the Guard ready to fulfill their duty?"

"Absolutely!"

"Great." I pulled the picture of Krejetzy from an inner pocket. "See this guy?"

Toot took a good look. "Do you wish him slain, Za Lord?"

Tempting, but it would be a slaughter. "Actually, that's my duty, Toot. He's a Black Court Vampire." Toot visibly shivered. "I just need the Guard to find him. I'll do the rest."

"Consider it done, my lord!" He zipped up about twenty feet, stopped, zipped back to me. "Uh, Harry, can I take that paper to show the others?"

"Yeah, that's kind of important, isn't it? Tell you what; have someone drop it in my pocket as the signal that you found him. Just write the address on the back of the page. You remember addresses, right?"

He looked at me like he thought I was an idiot. "Yes, Harry, I remember how to write an address." He paused. "I think? It's the number first, right?"

"If you need instructions - "

"No, no, wait, I got it! Number, then the street-word-sign-thing! See you soon!" He took the picture and shot into the sky again, quickly vanishing.

Shaking my head, I came back to the door. Mr. Talkative was still waiting for me, enjoying a cigarette. "That didn't take long," he said. "You use a satellite phone or something?"

"Yeah, something," I said, and continued past him.

Maybe it was just because the Chicago Little Folk were new to Miami, but they took a long time to find my target. I passed the time reading everything the White Court had on Krejetzy, which was virtually nothing beyond what Lara had told me. Lara herself dragged a couple of bodyguard and Justine off to a meeting somewhere with a rich somebody.

Andi made noises about going to the beach, but I pointed out that we could get word at any moment.

She made more noises. And so did Thomas.

I tried to remind them that we were on a mission.

More noises, with Marci joining in.

So, Thomas drove us down to the seafront areas. Now, I love Chicago. It's my home, and it's a hell of a city. But it's also a bit on the chilly side for most of the year. Lake Michigan's shores never look like Miami's. Which might be a good thing. The beaches, that we could see, were crowded and damn near impossible to get close to.

"This is nothing like that CSI show," Andi said.

"According to Karrin," I said, "_nothing_ is like that show. She says she could never watch more than about ten minutes of any of them without throwing something at the screen."

"Murphy? Threatening violence? Well, I never," Thomas said. He hit the brakes for what felt like the thousandth time.

"Do you think this is how professional assassins spend their time?" Marci asked. "Just kind of driving around, waiting?"

"Killing time before killing people?" I asked. "I doubt it. Most of them probably know where their target is."

Thomas hit the brakes yet again, then stuck his head out the window. "Get off the road, you stupid asshole!" He yanked his head back in and caught me looking at him. If fact, we were all looking at him. "What?"

"Road rage is unbecoming," I said. "Especially when driving a vehicle that could so easily crush the surrounding ones."

"Sorry. Just a little, uh… frustrated."

"I'm probably going to regret this, but, why?"

He paused a little before answering. "Justine's been travelling a lot. And we've been having discussions about it. And they are proving to be… unproductive."

I sat up straight. "Stars and stones. You're jealous of her career."

"I am not."

"Yes, you are. You're angry that she's always travelling, never home."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are. You miss her and want Lara to give her a break."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"Okay, fine, I am."

"Knew it."

"Can we not talk about this right now?"

"Hey," Andi said from the back, "don't hold back on our account."

"Yeah," Marci said, "we find this fascinating."

Thomas gave me a look that could have cut steel. "There is nothing to talk about. It's a private matter. The end."

"Okay," I said. "We'll let it go. Just don't let it affect your driving." I glanced upwards. The sun was already well on its way down, and the dashboard clock confirmed we were on the far side of three o'clock. _Come on, little guys._ "Man this traffic sucks."

Thomas hit his brakes one more time as a black Mercedes cut him off. "Preaching to the choir, Harry."

I felt an odd sensation near my leg, and twisted a little. I heard a crinkle of paper. Reaching in, I pulled out the picture of Krejetzy. "Bingo," I said. Smiling, I turned it over. "Okay. Anybody know where Northwest 102nd Place is?"

"Well, if I wasn't afraid it would explode, I'd ask the GPS," Thomas said. Unhelpfully.

"It's west of the Palmetto Expressway," Marci said. "I'm sure of that."

"That I can work with," Thomas said, and he immediately started looking for an opening to squeeze the monster truck into. "As soon as we find a place to pull over, Harry gets out and I'll make with the technomancy."

I was instantly alarmed. "Did you just make up a pseudo-magical term?" I asked. "You can't just do that."

"You do it all the time."

"Yeah, but I'm a wizard. It's in my job description. Sheesh. First the nicknames, and now this? You learn a little magic, and I'm going start feeling redundant."

"Only then? Really?"

I made a grumpy face, but at least my brother was smiling again. I wondered how long that would last.


	4. Chapter 4

Three traffic accidents, two construction detours, two more stops to check the GPS, and six swearing fits later, the sun was touching the horizon as we finally approached the house in the Doral neighborhood.

"This place looks… completely average," Andi said. She was right. Two stories, pale pink adobe finish. The door and windows all looked to be in the same state of repair as every other house on the street. SUV in the driveway. It was rather non-descript, really. Except that the lawn was overgrown. Otherwise, a perfect hideout.

There were no kids playing on their lawns, no cars moving on the street. In fact, I didn't see anyone but us. I reached out with my arcane senses, and detected something disturbing and belligerent in the air. This house was giving off bad vibes, and had been for a while.

"It does," I said. "That's kind of the point. But it _feels_ wrong. And that's also the point."

"Sun's almost down," Thomas said.

"Right. No time like the present. Thomas, Marci, take the back door. Andi, stay with me. Nobody attacks anything alone. Krejetzy is smart, tough and strong. According to Molly, he's got half a dozen einherjar under contract. Respect him or he will kill us. And if things go south and he makes a break for it, Thomas, you know what to do."

He absently touched his silver amulet, an exact copy of the one I had.

We threw open the doors and piled out. I mentally readied a soft shield, though I didn't expect gunfire. Thomas and Marci headed up the side of the house, and Andi kept pace half a step behind me. The front door was green. "Well, it worked for Gandalf," I said. I knocked on the door with my staff several times.

"You're just knocking on the door? Like you're not afraid of letting him know we're here?"

"He's a Black Court vampire," I said quietly. "He already knows we're here."

"We're about to confront a vampire, it's almost dark, and he knows we're here." She shook her head. "How do you get into these messes, Harry?"

After a second, I heard the creak of wood, and the door opened.

I found myself at eye level with a very wide, very thick-muscled man with the second-most impressive beard I had ever seen. And for reference, I've met Santa Claus.

He was einherjar. Definitely the right place, then. The guy was giving me a look that would have wilted a normal person into a gibbering mess, but after the decade I'd had, I hardly noticed.

"Tell Krejetzy the Winter Knight wants to see him," I said, and sounded bored.

Big Guy didn't move.

"If you're waiting for the magic word, it's 'now'." I made a sweeping away gesture with my left hand. "Unless you want me to use _other_ magic words."

Big Guy took a breath, then stepped back and closed the door.

"Uh, is that a no?" Andi asked.

"Give it a second. He has to get an answer from the boss. And I don't hear anything out back, do you?"

"Not yet." She kept looking around, checking the other houses, the empty street, the windows of this house. She couldn't stop.

"Don't worry. They won't kill us on the street. They don't want the attention."

"Oh, so we only have to be worried once we step inside?"

"Now you're getting it."

"Is going inside even a good idea?"

"No choice. I'm not about to tear up this neighborhood to get at one person, vampire or not. If things go bad… just stay to my left." She immediately took a step over to that side.

The door opened again. Big guy looked at us and nodded. He backed up and I stepped inside, shield still ready. I felt the gentle tug where a threshold should have been. There were some weak wards, but no real grounding to them. This was not a loving home. In fact, I doubted it was at 'home' at all. More like a flophouse.

The door opened into a living room. The windows were covered in thick blinds, the kind that could open at the top to let light in. A few inches of fading light crept through. The room was devoid of furniture. It was occupied only by two other einherjaren, both armed with extremely expensive, extremely high-quality firearms that I only recognized because I'd seen them before in the hands of other resurrected Norsemen.

_That's half of them_, I thought.

"Your staff," Big guy said.

"No," I said.

His hands tightened on his weapon. "If you don't turn it over, we are to kill the girl."

My jaw seized in anger, and the Winter Knight's mantle flared to life. What right did this son of a bitch have to take what was mine? I would kill him – I would kill them all before I let them take –

A hand on my shoulder. "Harry. It's getting cold in here." Andi.

I took a breath. I loosened my grip on my staff, where the carved runes had started to glow golden. The light faded. The temperature came back up.

"Fine," I said, and tossed it to him. He caught it in his non-trigger hand.

"Upstairs," Big Guy said. He gestured with his head, his arms being full of gun and staff, towards the back of the house.

Still trying to look unimpressed – not impossible, though I'd admit a little harder now – I sauntered off in that direction, Andi immediately behind me. We passed the kitchen at the back of the house; it was also empty of furniture, occupied only by one more oversized Scandinavian, and the windows were covered. There was a door, dead bolted. I had no idea where Thomas and Marci were, but had to assume they were checking for entrances just on the other side of that exterior wall.

At the staircase, I looked up and saw another enormous bodyguard, who waved us up. _That's five_. He escorted us to the door to the master bedroom, passing by a second bedroom on the way. That door was open, and showed the last bodyguard, seated at a desk, which was covered in monitors and other electronic equipment. The screens showed every approach to the house. One of them turned a little, and I saw Thomas. He must have seen the camera, because, he looked right at it and waved. Then he gave it the finger. Marci was beside him, wearing her wolf suit.

At the master bedroom, our escort opened the door and waved us in. He closed the door behind us. The blinds were drawn, and curtains pulled. Virtually no natural light worked its way in. The overhead light was off. I reached for the switch, and it didn't work. There was finally furniture, though; a single chair, and a single lamp.

Olan Krejetzy sat in the chair, slumped down, hands on his knees, staring straight at me, moving not a muscle. His suit still looked poorly fitted. The lamp shone on him from above, leaving his eyes in shadow. There was a slight smell in the air, like something had rotted here a long time ago, and there was a slight, unnatural chill that had nothing to do with me. His skin, such as it was, was pale and waxy. I knew, instinctively, that we were not alone in the room.

"Oh, god," Andi whispered, and she clutched my arm, before moving both her arms to hug herself. She was only wearing a simple, loose sundress and sandals; she was likely freezing.

Krejetzy's voice, when he spoke, was dry and raspy, with an accent I couldn't place, but I wanted to label as 'Balkan'. "Why has the Winter Court sent such an emissary to see me?" he asked.

_So, we're going to play dumb and polite, are we? Fine_. "Andi, stay by the door." I took a step forward. "I came to convey a message, and it was feared you would simply kill a lesser envoy."

"I may have. I have done so before. Please. Share this message."

"You're aware that the Winter Queen is arranging a peace conference, are you not?"

"I have heard rumors. I have not received an invitation."

I took a step forward. "Likely it was lost in the mail. The point is; some of the invitees have been threatened. Some of them, in fact, have been killed." Another step. "I thought you'd appreciate a friendly warning."

"Warning?"

"Yes; a warning to stop messing with the system." I took another step. "Or face the consequences."

A sound like sandpaper on stone came from the vampire. He was laughing. "That is most entertaining. But I do not fear you, or your Queen. And you can convey that message back to her." Not afraid of Mab? Huh. Maybe he wasn't _playing_ dumb. "Now, you have delivered your message. I would suggest that you leave. I have other business to see to."

"Of course. I do hope you have a pleasant evening, and I will convey your message." Another step, and I was in the middle of the room. I bowed, just a little. "Just one question; do you really think I need my staff for this?"

Several things happened all at once over the next two seconds: I shoved a hand out and shouted "_Fuego_!" sending a wide, unfocussed gout of flame towards Krejetzy; the vampire was already moving, having thrown himself up and backwards, towards the window; from both sides of the room, a person-shaped shadow came hurtling at me; and from behind, I heard a sound of tearing cloth as Andi transformed and launched herself forward.

I dropped the fire and turned right, swinging a haymaker of a left. I let the Winter mantle surge through me; it was always spoiling for a fight anyway. My fist connected with a face as Krejetzy exploded out through the window, letting the very last of the fading daylight in.

The man I hit crumpled to the floor. He wasn't a vampire; a thrall, then. Behind me, I heard Andi collide with the other man. The guy I hit stayed down; I turned to see the other man smash through the closet wall.

The door burst open, the einherjar bodyguard kicking it in. I pointed at him and snarled "_Arctis_!"

Ice condensed around his hands and weapon before he could start shooting. "Andi, go after Krejetzy!" Without waiting to see if she listened, I threw myself at the barrel-chested bodyguard in two big steps. While he was still struggling to free himself, I grabbed him around the waist, heaved him off his feet, and started charging down the hallway. I thought of Krejetzy, and how he was my target, and I couldn't lose him. The Winter mantle surged to that thought, and increased speed down the hall.

The man controlling the monitors came out of the other bedroom, and I plowed into him with my Viking battering ram. At the top of the stairs, I stopped and shoved both of them. Without pausing, I willed a shield into being and started down the stairs. The remaining einherjaren had collected themselves and opened fire as their comrades took a tumble. The two men I'd thrown fell to the floor with a racket but without hurting anyone else.

I tuned the shield to be soft, and let the bullets drop. It was draining, but I didn't have to do it for long.

Another crashing sound, as the kitchen door exploded inwards, and Thomas' ridiculously oversized handgun stared barking. He dropped two of the big men before the others retreated to the relative safety of the living room. I hopped the last few steps, scooped up my staff off the floor, and pointed at them. Dropping the shield, I shouted, '_Forzare_!"

Both men were slapping the face with invisible force, and made einherjar-shaped dents in the walls.

"Where is he?" I demanded.

"Heading east, the girls are on him," Thomas said, heading for the front door and pulling his amulet out of his shirt. I passed him, heading through the kitchen door. I sprinted across the backyard, now in twilight, heading for a broken section of the yard wall. I shot across both sets of lanes and the median in the middle of 102nd Avenue. I caught a glimpse of a wolf to my left, and curved that way. She started running along 58th Street, and I followed. Traffic was light, but I stayed on the sidewalk.

After a moment, I caught up to Marci. It's an odd sensation, keeping pace with a freaking wolf, and knowing that you could go surging past her any time if you really pushed.

I felt the blood pumping, the thrill of the chase, the hunt, coming over me completely. I vaguely felt some heat on my chest, right where my amulet sat against my skin. After another minute, I ran out of sidewalk. I could see the other wolf, Andi, not too far ahead now. It was only when I started seeing the headlights of oncoming traffic that I realized how dark it had become.

When I felt a surge in heat from my amulet and headlights from behind, I knew Thomas had found us. The Hummer pulled up beside me, windows down. "The tracking spell worked perfectly – now get in!" he shouted.

I hopped on the running board, one hand through the window, and heaved the back door open against the wind with the other. "Marci!" She twisted and jumped, landing awkwardly, but safe. I let the door close, and turned to face front. We caught up to Andi in seconds. I opened the door again, and she jumped, landing a little more gracefully.

I stuck my head in. "You okay?"

Human again, she nodded. Marci had pulled her dress back on. Both of them were breathing heavily, and I joined them. "He's not too far ahead," Andi gasped.

"I got him," Thomas said.

The road widened out to four lanes, and street lights became more common. I saw the vampire, too. He was moving like a freight train, and shot through a major intersection like the Flash. Thomas floored it, and within seconds we were at the overpass to the Palmetto Expressway. For all the trouble we'd had getting to the damn house, getting away from it was proving all too easy.

On the other side of the highway, the road's median disappeared, and so did the neighborhoods. We were entering an industrial area. I saw Krejetzy look over his shoulder.

Then the son of a bitch decided to _hurry_.

He was pulling away from us again, just as we passed a large display of crane trucks. A second later, Thomas weaved around and between a trio of cars as we headed into the last major intersection on the road. The light changed less than a second before we got there, and we blew through to a chorus of horns. The road was suddenly two lanes wide. There was a small canal running down the opposite side. We zipped past a mostly empty parking lot on the right, then the street was lined with trailers. Krejetzy had dwindled in size without disappearing, heading for the end of the road.

Thomas was forced to smash the brakes as Krejetzy ran between two trailers. I crouched and dove forward, riding the momentum for all it was worth. I hit the ground in a roll, taking the impact on my left shoulder to keep my staff from breaking. I basically bounced on the ground, flipped over, and came up running.

The shadows were deep now. On the other side of the trailers, I came to dead stop. My heart was pounding, interfering with my hearing, but my eyes were wide open. I was in a train yard. There had to be a dozen separate tracks, with trains of varying lengths staggered about them with shipping containers stacked every which way. On the far side, a wall, one of those sound blocking ones you see along freeways.

I took a few slow, cautious steps. Off to my left, I caught a glimpse of Thomas emerging from the trailers, too, big gun at his side, large knife spinning in his fingers. Marci and Andi appeared behind him. In low light, with their keen senses of smell, they'd be infinitely better trackers than I. I kept one eye on them as they started sniffing around.

The mantle was all but singing to me now; the prey was making a real game of it.

But I hadn't survived _as_ the Winter Knight this long by _being_ the Winter Knight; I was a wizard, first and foremost, and needed to think like one. And wizards, above all, use knowledge as their weapon. So, what did I know?

Krejetzy was a Black Court vampire. And the survivors of the Black Court were just that – survivors. He'd avoid confrontation if possible. Use distraction. Bait. Cat's paws. Hell, he thought more like a White Court vampire. And aside from manipulation, what strategy did the White Court like to use?

Divide and conquer.

"You three stay close together," I said.

Thomas gave me a questioning look. I gave him a thumb's-up. He nodded reluctantly, and led the Alphas north. I headed a little south, and started across the tracks. I checked under, over, and between cars. One track, two, three, five, eight. I never quite lost the cool, greasy feeling that touched my spine and had nothing to do with Winter. Thirty feet from that sound-breaking wall, I came around an engine on the second last track. Krejetzy was _here_. He was _close_. He was –

"Wizard."

- right behind me. I turned, left side first, shield ready. The vampire was about thirty feet away. He was standing on the ground between two cargo cars, and the trains stretched out several hundred feet behind him. He could make a break for it, but he'd either be running in a straight line again, or ducking under the trains. If he broke straight for me, I could retreat back across the tracks I'd just crossed. He'd taken a risk exposing himself here. Why?

"Vampire," I said, my voice carrying just a little.

"Why did you not start with ice, Winter Knight?"

"Fire is more thorough."

He gave me a tiny nod. "I suppose there is little point in talking."

"You know why I was sent."

"I do, now. It is unfortunate. We might have been friends."

"You know how the game works. And you know who I am. That was never going to happen. Now, you're out-numbered, boxed in, and out of bodyguards. Let's finish this."

His face then did something really gross; it cracked. I don't mean it crinkled, like when a human being smiles, I mean the skin actually cracked, and started to flake off around his mouth.

That was not a good sign, and I instantly tensed.

"Three assumptions," he said, "and two of them wrong." I heard a clunk sound above me, and looked up. On top of the last train in the yard, a dozen large men in turtlenecks stepped closer. "Not out-numbered, not out of bodyguards."

"Perfect," I heard myself say. "Got you right where I want you."

I also realized I had no answer to Andi's question: How _did_ I get into these messes?

Without pausing to think, I swept my staff up and shouted, "_Forzare_!" Then I backed up, trying to get as much elbow room to work with as possible. Three of the Fomor caught some of the shot, though only one of them took it hard; he went up and fell on the other side of the train. The rest jumped towards me, landing on the ground heavily.

"_Infriga_!" I caught two of them in the ice, but only partially, coating one arm of each. The rest started charging me the instant they hit the ground. I swung my staff overhead and got a good swing going, but my target dodged. I shoved a shield forward, and he bounced off it, but I still felt the impact and staggered back a few steps. Three more turtlenecks came in from different sides. Two of them had long knives. I couldn't turn fast enough.

A gunshot echoed down the line, bouncing between the big metallic cargo and liquid transport cars, and the turtle neck coming at me from the left dropped to the ground with a hole in his face. I dove that way, as several more retorts sounded. As I hit the ground, the servitors scattered.

Marci and Andi leapt from between a pair of cars, ripping the throats out of two of the amphibious assholes. I came to my feet, shield ready, but instead, I took a potshot at one of the running servitors. "_Forzare_!" He smashed into the side of an empty liquid car, and the echoing 'bong' sound he made with his head made me smile. "How many down?" I asked.

Thomas appeared at my side, reloading. "We just put down six."

"Plus the one I got at the start makes seven. There's three left."

The wolves joined us. "Noses open. What do we have?"

Marci's head snapped up. I looked, and saw two small, rounds things sailing over a train car –

"Grenades!" All four of us ran in the same direction, alongside a train double stacked with cargo containers. I counted to three, then turned and brought up the hardest shield I could. I was deafened. Focused and made worse by the enclosing train cars, the blast, the heat and the sound all came at us harder than they should have. I was knocked off my feet. I landed hard, on my back.

On some tracks.

_Ouch_.

I took most of the impact on my legs, but a solid chunk of the wooden tie dug into my back, even through my duster. My head was good and rattled, too. It took a second for my eyes and ears to remember how to work.

When they did, I found a servitor standing over me with a handgun leveled at my face. "Human," he said, and it sounded like an insult.

"Don't suppose we can talk about this?" I asked.

He made a face that I presume was a smile and took aim at my face.

Before I could so much as make a feeble kick at his legs, there was a crunching sound from behind me, and his head snapped up. I couldn't help myself; I looked.

Another servitor had, indeed, been crushed. There was a freaking _seal_ on top of what was left of him.

"Selkie!" the gunman shouted, and he took aim.

As I watched, the seal rippled, just like the Alphas, and was replaced by a nude woman with long hair. Again, just like the Alphas. However, as Gunny started shooting, the woman launched herself into the air with her arms and dashed forward. Gunny got off four shots before the woman grabbed another servitor around the neck. Gunny put two more bullets in that guy.

I finally came to my senses and put a foot into Gunny's knee, getting his attention back. "_Infriga_!" Ice and mist condensed around him in a second, helped a little by the humid sea air.

The woman appeared over me and ducked down. "Winter Knight," she said, and her accent was most definitely Scottish. She glanced at the Gunny-sicle. "I presume?"

"Yeah, that's me. Harry Dresden."

She offered me a hand. "I'm Connie."

I took the hand. "Thanks, I – whoop!" She heaved me to my feet with less effort than I would have used opening a door. I looked down at her; she was bigger than Karrin, but not by much. Her, uh, muscle tone, however, was mind-blowing. As was her total disregard for modesty. "Uh, wow," I said.

She just smiled.

"Ow," Thomas said. He came stumbling up to us a moment later, rubbing his forehead. Andi and Marci, unsteady even on all fours, followed him. "I really don't like grenades." He looked at Connie. "Well, hello."

"You must be the Raith."

"Well, I'm one of them. Nice outfit."

"You should see her other suit," I said.

"I'll bet. Where's Krejetzy?"

I slapped my forehead; with the sudden fight with the servitors, I'd stopped focusing the damn vampire. I turned back the way we had come, and reached out with my arcane senses.

Nothing.

I deflated, then punched the nearest cargo container. "Damnit. He's gone."

"He'll be around," Connie said. "He's not done here."

"You're right. Unfortunately, he's running, and the favor I cashed in to find him was a one-off."

"How can I help?"

"You're the selkie who found his boat, aren't you?"

"I am."

"So why are you still here? And how the hell did you even get here?"

"I owed the Winter Lady a debt. After I found the vampire, she told me if I helped you until your mission was complete, the debt would be paid. As for how I got here, I followed the Fomor up the canal."

"Canal?"

"On the other side of that wall."

"Harry," Thomas said, "we need to go. After that big boom, the police will be along any minute."

"Yeah, right. You're right." I took another look around, but I knew it was futile. My fists were clenched around my staff. "Girls, noses out." My brother led the way back to the Humvee, and got us heading back to the hotel.

The Alphas filled Connie in on everything during the drive. Andi and Marci had both brought extra clothes, and Marci had not torn through her own dress changing form earlier, so nobody had to go naked for the ride. Under other circumstances, I might have been disappointed about that, but I was a little too busy brooding. Thanks to me completely whiffing it, a Black Court vampire was dashing around this city, his safe house compromised. Who knew how many potential victims he could take while finding a hideout? And I had no way to find him.

Nice job, Dresden.

Not to mention that he would be far more cautious in coming for Lara now, making protecting her – and thus preserving what little peace there was – even harder.

With the thrill of the chase over, and the prey escaped, the Winter mantle was apparently disgusted with me, and had withdrawn into a form of restless sleep within me. Fatigue was hitting me after the events of the last hour, and hitting hard.

"Harry?" Thomas said. "You all right?"

"No. I think I screwed this one up bad. All I had to do was kill him. Some killer Fae hitman I'm turning out to be. Karrin killed Maeve. I couldn't finish Nicodemus. Now Krejetzy escapes."

"Are you actually disappointed in yourself for not being a better _killer_?" He smacked me in the shoulder. "Empty night, what the hell is wrong with you? I mean, come on. That's not the way you think."

"Yeah, okay, okay. You've got a point. I'm just… I'm worried. I'm worried that I let him go, and he's going to do some damage. Because I couldn't shut him down."

"All right, that at least sounds more like you. But we all let him go. He was ready for us. He had a plan. He had back up."

"He did, didn't he?" I seized on that. "He… he did. He _does_." I sat up straighter. "He's been doing this literally for centuries. He has a bolt hole. He has a place to go. He led us to the train yard so we'd be distracted while he went for his real hideaway. He's not panicked at all."

"There, see? Silver lining."

"Better than that. This actually narrows it down."

"How do you mean?"

"If he's got a place to go, then he arranged it ahead of time, like any good spy. Which means he had to have a connection. Which means favors or currency had to change hands."

He was nodding. "Which means Danicka. Nothing happens in this town without her knowing. She's like Lara and Johnny Marcone wrapped into one."

"Scary. Can we get a meeting?"

"I'll have to call Lara."

I shrugged. "I'll think calm thoughts."

As the elevator doors opened on the penthouse, Lara was in the kitchen nearby, holdidng a cup of what I presumed was tea. She was still wearing her business suit. She took a look over my shoulder at the women. One of her perfectly manicured eyebrows lifted. "Starting a collection, Wizard?"

"Ha-ha." We all left the elevator together, Mr. Talkative and his large friend watching closely.

"Oh, this is nice," Connie said, looking around.

"Did you understand our call?"

"What I got, at least before your phone died - "

Thomas whistled and tossed his cell to Mr. Talkative. "I'll need a new one," he whispered.

" – was that you needed a meeting with Danicka regarding Krejetzy."

"Exactly."

"She won't take a meeting tonight."

"Why the hell not?"

She crossed her arms, carefully balancing her cup. "It's after business hours."

It took me a full two seconds to respond. "You're kidding me."

"I wish I were. Danicka is being obstinate on purpose. She's never liked me."

"You explained the situation, and the time-sensitive nature of it all?"

"I did. She was unmoved."

"So how do I talk to her?"

She shrugged. "You wait for tomorrow."

"That's insane."

"That's Malvora," Thomas said. "They're stuck in that way of thinking. If they're not strengthening their own position, they're putting you in a weaker one. Regardless of circumstances."

I just stood there, not sure what to say or do. How could anyone, especially with a business empire and centuries of experience, act so un-pragmatically? "This doesn't make any sense to me."

"Welcome to my life."

"I suggest you get some rest, Wizard," Lara said. "I can introduce you to Danicka. But after that, you are on your own. And you'll need your strength." She turned to Mr. Talkative. "Get them some rooms." She moved to walk away.

I stood there, confused and frustrated. I threw my arms out to my sides. "So that's it? We're just done for the day?"

She glanced over her shoulder. "Yes."

"Well that was… anticlimactic," Karrin said.

"You're telling me." I winced back from a quick burst of static on the phone, and pictured her doing the same. I took the second to adjust on my bed. My overnight bag was on the desk, and I'd draped my duster over the chair that went with it. "So, now I have to wait for a meeting with a vampire who's an even bigger pain in the ass to deal with than Lara."

"You know she's probably recording this call."

"Yeah, I know."

She laughed.

"Have I missed anything important? Anything interesting?"

"No. The Fomor have been quiet all day, as far as I can tell."

"Small favors."

"Still not taking any risks. Don't worry; the city will still be here when you get back."

"Wouldn't trust anyone else to keep that promise."

"You just keep yours, mister."

"Yes ma'am."

I took a shower, washing away the sweat and dirt of the day. I had a few blisters, probably from the run. I toweled off. And looked at my face in the mirror. My eyes were sunken, but no real dark circles yet.

Back in the bedroom, I pulled the skull out. Her eyes immediately lit up. "Hi there," I said.

"Hi Harry." She looked around. "Oh. We're still in the material world."

I couldn't resist. "Yes, we are living in the material world."

She didn't catch it. "Well, I guess I can still learn something. You've never been to this city before, have you?"

"No, I haven't." I put the skull on the night table, positioned to look out the window. "So there's no way you could know about it from me." I walked back to my duster.

"Huh. That's a nice view."

"I like it, too. Kind of dark, though." I fished in a pocket and pulled out the thorn bracelet and its key.

"Not to me," she said, and her voice was distant.

I looked up. The window gave a fine view of the city, though large chunks of it were blocked by other, nearby buildings. She could probably see right through them. Or, more accurately, she could see the patterns of energy flowing through and around everything. A wizard's Sight is like that; when we open our mind along with our eyes, we can See the fundamental nature of a thing, what is truly is, where it's been, sometimes where it's going. When looking at people, we can See them for who and what they are, and the imprint they've left on the world, both physically and spiritually.

The down side is, if you See something nasty, it's impossible to forget.

I couldn't imagine seeing the world that way all the time. After some of the things I'd Seen… the very idea scared the crap out of me. But there she was, drinking it in.

"Um, I'm sorry I woke you up, but I had to ask you a favor."

"Oh, sure." The little green lights shifted reluctantly back to me, then the skull itself seemed to hop and turn to face me. That was new. "What do you need?"

"I'm going to wear this to bed," I said, holding up the bracelet.

"Won't that shut down your magical ability?"

"Yes, but I - "

"Why would you want to do that?"

"To protect others. And myself. And the stuff in this room. Including the telephone. I should have put it on before I called Karrin. Look, I'm obviously not thinking straight. I need to rest and assess how tough today was on me, and the only way to do that is to shut down the Winter Mantle."

"Oh. Okay. So, what do you need from me?"

"I'm not going to have any of my usual senses or intuition once I put it on. I would like you to wake me up if anything happens. If anyone tries to get into the room, for example."

"I can do that."

"Okay, here we go." I sat down, held out my left arm, and clicked the bracelet into place with my right.

Lightheadedness. Fatigue. Headache. Body ache. Deep muscle pain. Irritated throat. Couldn't concentrate.

I lay down, turned off the lamp, and felt sleep coming.

"Goodnight," I mumbled.

"Sleep tight," she replied. "Don't let the bedbugs bite."

"Good advice," I said, smiling. I was out a minute later.


	5. Chapter 5

No one tried to kill me in the night. Which, in my line of work, is a victory.

I rolled out of bed and snagged the key on the night stand. I was still sore, but most of the tiredness was gone. Though I was itching to unlock the bracelet, I stretched my neck, back and shoulders, then stood and got my legs loosened up first. I needed to know how capable I actually was before applying the anesthetic.

I slipped the key in the slot and turned. The little spikes released me, some of them popping out of my skin easily, taking a tiny amount of blood with them, some of them a little reluctant to give up. I pulled the bracelet off, and strength flowed in.

In the bathroom, I rinsed the bracelet clean and wrapped a piece of gauze around my arm, taping it in place. The tiny cuts would close over during the day, as they had for the last several weeks. I dressed, then slid the cuff into one back pocket, and the key into the other.

I shrugged into my duster, snagged my staff, and headed into the hall. I knocked on the next door. It cracked open after a few seconds. Connie's face appeared. "Well, good morning, Sir Knight."

"Morning. Listen, I was wondering if you could do something for me?"

"Oh?"

"Yeah." I pulled out my room keycard. "If I hold this for too long, it'll just erase itself. Is there any way I could just leave with you, and ask you to open my door?"

She nodded, one side of her mouth ticking up. "Aye, I can do that."

"Thanks." I handed it over, touched my brow, and headed downstairs. As I reached the lobby, the elevator lurched, hard, as though the brakes had a sense of bad timing. Mental note: take a different elevator up.

I stood in the lobby for all of five minutes, during which every single guest stared openly at me, and every single employee very politely pretended not to. Try as I might, a tall guy in leather carrying a staff just will not catch on a fashion statement. Eventually, a cab pulled up, and in walked an attractive young man with naturally tanned skin and very short, dark hair, in a well-cut, light-colored suit, and wraparound sunglasses. He was pulling his own bag and had a serious limp; his right leg didn't seem to be working quite right.

Smiling, I stepped forward and extended my hand. "Carlos Ramirez."

"That's my name," he said, sliding his glasses up and clapping my hand, smiling a little. "Son of a bitch. I almost didn't believe it when the Gatekeeper made the announcement. But here you are, alive again. Or so it seems."

"Technically, I was only mostly dead."

"Oh, sure, just resting, maybe?"

I snickered. "Something like that."

He shook his head and the little smile disappeared. "Been over a year since that announcement. Where you been?"

I gave him a straight-faced answer. "Living on a creepy island in the middle of Lake Michigan."

"Uh-huh. Any particular reason?"

"Yup."

He waited for more, and when I didn't give it to him, he snorted. "Yeah, you sound like Dresden."

"Anybody who rides my dinosaur can call me Harry."

At that, he laughed out loud, and smiled broadly. "Wow, that sounded dirty. Okay, now I'm sure." He came in for a quick hug, and I found myself returning it. "It's good to have you back, man. You are back, right?"

"I am now." I led him towards the elevators, and dropped my voice. "Been smacking the Fomor around in Chicago all month."

"Ah, now, that I've heard about. Doing a hell of a job, if the rumors are true."

"Only the good stuff." I hit the call button. "How's the leg?"

"Could be worse. It's holding me up, now. Listens-to-Wind is a miracle worker."

"He's the best healer on the Council. It's kind of his thing. I need to call him." The elevator I had arrived in opened. Carlos took a step; I held him back. "Not that one."

He didn't question me.

A second later, another set of doors opened and a tourist family spilled out, ready to face the traffic on the way to the beach. I led Ramirez in and hit '40'.

"So," I said as we ascended. "Does this mean I'm off the Warden hit list?"

"Don't worry, man. When I told them I was coming to meet you, about a hundred people freaked out. The captain wasn't one of them."

Thanks, Ana. "Senior Council?"

"Only Cristos. But I'm guessing you know how much credit he has."

"Zilch?"

"As far as the important stuff goes."

"Good. The Merlin was okay with it?"

"Not the exact word I'd use. More like… 'resigned'." I pictured Arthur Langtry sighing in defeat, and it brought a smile to my face. "So, the Captain just asked me to get a feel for you. Decide if you were still you, or had become a bigger threat."

"Bigger? Not just, 'become a threat', but a 'bigger threat'?"

"What can I say? You have a reputation."

"That is true. Lot of people don't like me."

"Also true, but no one's willing to piss off Mab over you."

"Hmph. Good to know."

We were silent for a couple of seconds. "So, still hanging with vampires," he said.

I took a breath. Carlos didn't know Thomas was my brother, and it was probably better that way for everyone. I liked Carlos, but he was a Warden, and the Merlin, the head of the White Council, had a talent for putting thoughts in people's heads. I didn't yet know if he could pluck them out as easily. I mean, Captain Luccio knew, but why risk it? "Relax. They're friendly vampires."

"Really?"

"Yup. And they make finding the less friendly ones a lot easier."

"Is that why you're all chummy with the Raith? Using him to get to others?"

That was… close enough. "That's a huge part of it."

"But not all?"

"Carlos, sometimes, you have to give to get."

"But you're not 'giving' to his sister, right?"

Now I could be honest. "She's… a lot scarier."

He rolled his shoulders and tried not to look like the last time he'd met Lara, she'd considered him a gift basket to be devoured. "Very true."

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. I led him to the room next to mine, and knocked. Connie answered, soaking wet and wrapped in a towel. "Ah. Suppose you'd like me to open your door?"

"That would be much appreciated."

She let the door swing open and stepped past us, keycard already in hand.

Ramirez and I followed. Very quietly, he said to me, "I'll say this for you, Dresden: Alive or dead, you know how to make friends."

Connie opened the door. "I just spoke with Ms. Raith. She says the car will be ready in 15 minutes."

I nodded. "We'll be there."

"Good. Meet you down there." She headed back to her room as I led Carlos into mine.

Closing the door, he asked, "Who is that, exactly?"

"Her name is Connie. She spends most of her time as a seal."

"She's a selkie? Christ. Did you see her arms?"

"Yeah. Hard to miss."

"Wow. How did you - ?"

"The new job comes with connections, my friend."

He sobered. "I bet it does."

That got uncomfortable fast. "Hey, any recommendation for girl's names?"

"Say what?"

"A friend of mine recently found he's having a daughter. Needs suggestions for names."

"Oh. Well, my mother's name Jennifer."

I nodded. "I'll pass that along. You should get ready."

He nodded, lifting his bag to the bed. "Right. To business."

We had to wait for the elevator again before meeting the others in the parking garage. "Seriously," I said to Ramirez as we stood there. "Armor? For just your leg?"

"It's an exoskeleton," he said, tapping the articulated metal plate that wrapped around his right leg. He carried his Warden's sword wrapped in his grey cloak, making it look like a beach towel. He had a light, loose jacket closed over a tactical vest, to which he had fastened half a dozen small grenades and two handguns. Karrin would have been proud.

"Like when Batman fought Superman?" I asked.

"I was thinking more like when Matt Damon or Tom Cruise wanted to fight Jodie Foster or time-travelling aliens, but sure. It makes the limb work right. For a few hours a day, anyway."

Obviously, I couldn't help but think of Karrin. "Interesting."

"You really should spend some time with Listens-to-Wind. He and I came up with this together."

"It's on my to-do list."

Andi and Marci approached from the hallway. They were dressed as they usually were, in easy removed dresses and shoes. They didn't need to carry weapons since they were weapons. "Hi Harry," Marci said. "Warden Ramirez."

"We've had this conversation before; you can call me Carlos."

"She knows," Andi said. "She just likes hearing you say your name."

Carlos produced a charming smile while Marci closed her eyes and sighed, and tried to keep her cheeks from flushing.

The down arrow blinked on with a ding. "Oh, look," I said. "An elevator."

We rode it down to the lobby again, stopping at the 37th, 29th, 21st, 17th, and 8th floors to pick up or drop off other riders. This effectively scupperred any further awkward conversation. On the ground floor, we headed out to a waiting white limo. Mr. Talkative's partner, Mr. Large, opened the door for us.

The girls climbed in first, and I got in last. It was a tight fit. I squeezed into the rearmost seat beside Carlos. Lara was sitting against the driver's partition, Justine next to her. Thomas was on the side bench with Connie and Marci. Andi was on Carlos' other side.

Lara knocked on the glass, just like Molly had, and I found myself in the middle of a case of déjà vu. The car got rolling. "Seriously, wizard? You're bringing everyone?" Lara asked.

"It not like they have anything else to do."

Thomas leaned forward. "I told you; marching into a Malvora stronghold with all the king's horses and all the king's men, and werewolves, and selkies, is not a way to make friends."

"Don't need to make friends. Just need information."

"And you won't get it with a blatant display of power," Lara said. "Listen to me; be intimidating and make threats all you want, but be subtle. Anything overt will be seen as tactless and pathetic."

I thought about it. "I can do those things."

"Alone? From a position of weakness? Surrounded by monsters who can sense your fear, with no back up and no chance of escape if something goes wrong?"

Thomas leaned back, Carlos snorted, Marci and Andi gave each other a knowing look, and Justine tried to appear enthralled by some paperwork. Connie looked around. "Am I missing something?"

Carlos said, "You haven't known Harry very long, but Ms. Raith just described his preferred method for doing… well, everything."

"It's true," I said. "I don't even like to go for a beer unless I know someone in the bar wants to punch me."

"That reminds me," Thomas said. "Mac says he's calling in your tab."

"See? Even the bartender."

Connie leaned back. "You're an odd man, Winter Knight."

I wasn't sure if I was being complimented or insulted, so I kept my mouth shut. See, Karrin? No direct confrontation.

Danicka Malvora ran an investment bank. There are a lot of banks in Miami; they handle a simply enormous amount of money. They also handle all the related consumer products; mortgages, credit cards, lines of credit, car loans, hedge funds, ARMs, MBSs, CDOs, and a thousand things that I couldn't explain even with the complete names.

It's all extremely complicated, but it all boils back down to money. They have it, you need it, and they will do whatever they have to in order to make more of it. That often includes a lot of waiting, wondering, and worrying… Which, for many people, leads to fear: Did that student loan count against me? How will I keep my house? How will I put the kid through college? Can I keep my car? Will I even be able to put food on the table?

Now imagine your banker actually got off on that.

Like every industry, banking is mostly full of decent folks who are just earning their living, know the rules, and have to explain them to those of us who get frustrated with the system and are convinced they are out to simply take our money and throw us to the sharks. But the bank we pulled up in front of was the exception; these bankers actually were the sharks.

I ultimately decided Lara might have a point; I would go in with just her. Carlos and the Alphas would go back to the safe house to check for any clues, and Thomas would go with Connie back to the train yard.

Mr. Large opened the door, and I got out to take in the scene. The bank's building was about 35 storeys tall. You had to go up twenty steps from the street to get to the front door, which opened into a lobby with several armed security guards. The building itself was mostly steel and dark glass and right angles. It was about as imposing and impersonal as it could be.

But once you realized that's the way to was designed to be, it lost a lot of its impact. It was just a building, and there were several impersonal, imposing edifices up and down the street. The street itself was loud, full of traffic and people, a serious cacophonic assault. The building looked quiet and almost a relief in comparison.

The bad guys always want you to be scared; it's where they get their power over you (in some cases, more literally than in others). But if you know that going in, it's a lot harder for them to hold that advantage, and like a tourist trap haunted house, it ends up being more funny than scary.

But there was something else, something just at the edge of my awareness.

Lara appeared at my elbow. "Shall we?" I nodded and let her go first. "They're going to take your staff," she said over her shoulder.

"How many of them?" I asked.

"That's the spirit."

It took me a second to realize she was complimenting me on being ready for the upcoming psychological warfare. I was distracted; that something was getting stronger.

We got to the door, and I put my hand against it, holding before she could open it.

"What is it?"

"It's a ward," I said. "But this isn't a mortal home. There's nothing to anchor a ward to."

"Something laid fresh every morning?"

"It would have to be. And it would have to be damn powerful to exist at all."

"What does it do?"

I squinted and felt along the lines of force. "It's an alarm."

"That makes sense, for a bank."

"Kind of, but… ah. There it is. It's tuned to mortal magic only." I dropped my hand to the handle and pulled the door open, like a gentleman. "It'll only go off when a wizard crosses it." I followed Lara and stepped inside. I felt the ward tingle.

Nothing happened. Except for the sensation of being watched.

We both stood at the door for a second. "Oh," Lara said. "A silent alarm."

I started towards the security scanner. "Laugh now. But I think that's exactly what it is. They know I'm here, and what I am."

The guard immediately on the other side of the metal detector looked up at me. "Sir, please remove your coat, belt, and any metal you might be carrying. And I'll have to take the, uh, walking stick."

I leaned on my staff and looked him in the nose. "If I didn't need the stick to walk, I wouldn't have it with me."

"I'm sorry, sir, but you can't keep it. It's a weapon."

Well, he was right. "Can I talk to your supervisor?"

The man was professional, I'll give him that. He didn't even let out a sulky breath. I just waved at another guard, one with a slightly fancier shirt.

Before the new guy could open his mouth, I said, "No, your actual supervisor."

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, come on." I let a little power seep into my staff, and most of the carved runes slowly lit up with a golden light. "We all know what's going on, and we all know the silent alarm went off the instant I walked through the door. So why don't we stop wasting time? I have a long day ahead of me."

The two men looked at each other, then the not-supervisor walked away, pulling out a two-way radio as he did. Two other guards, a little further away, kept their hands very close to their holstered weapons. I whispered over my shoulder, "How am I doing?"

"I'm seen worse entrances," Lara said, "but these are not the people you need to impress."

"These are not the people watching me through the security cameras." I pointed to a black plastic bubble directly above us.

One side of her mouth ticked up.

I looked at the poor supervisor. He was holding the radio away from his ear, like someone was shouting at him. Maybe it was just static from me. I passed the time by glancing around looking bored.

The supervisor came back. "Apologies for the hold up. If you would both please come with me."

Lara and I started walking, right through the metal detector, which coughed out a weak buzzing sound. He led us past a bank of elevators, around a corner, along a hallway and to another elevator. All of these things were coated in stainless steel and gave off a feel of cold, impersonal indifference. The floor was marble, but not shot through with anything interesting. The lights were all fluorescent.

He hit the call button, and the doors opened right away. He waved us in, but didn't join us. The doors closed. Only then did I realize there was no button on the inside. "Spectacular," I said. "Now what?"

The elevator began to rise.

"Now, you remember that patience is a virtue."

We were probably bugged, but I didn't want to risk getting trapped in the elevator, so I decided to just stay quiet instead of hexing it. I leaned against the wall and yawned. The car took a strangely long time to rise, and I realized it was moving slowly on purpose. Anyone with a hint of claustrophobia would have been left extremely uncomfortable. Eventually, we stopped moving. After an unusually long time, the doors opened. I followed Lara into a hallway coated in very nice, very expensive hardwood. There was a line of marble running down the middle three feet of the floor on this level, and it was beautiful, sparkling in subdued lighting. Compared to everything I'd seen up to this moment, it was a relief.

In other words, the gentle stroke on the cheek before the nails rip your throat out.

The hall led directly to a huge wooden door. Lara didn't pause before grabbing the handle and giving it a good shove. It swung wide into an office that my old apartment would have fit into nicely. Four or five times.

Again, there were beautiful woods everywhere, lush carpeting that looked hand-stitched, enormous floor-to-ceiling windows at either end, leather furniture, heads of extremely vicious animals mounted on the walls, an over-sized aquarium-like structure with a freaking boa-constrictor inside, a smaller aquarium-thing with a black widow, and, against the far wall, raised several steps on dais, were a pair of small, leather chairs, and a huge, ancient-looking desk.

Standing behind the desk, looking amused, was a more muscular, tanned version of Lara Raith, with bleached hair.

Danicka Malvora smiled, and it was predatory. "Cousin," she said. "So nice of you to drop by."

Lara plastered her own fake smile in place. "Danicka, it's been forever."

"Been even longer since I saw your father."

I almost jerked my head at that. It might have been nothing, but from her tone of voice, it felt like she was dropping a big hint that she knew about Lord Raith's… condition. Seemed the small talk with under-lying threats wasn't something they eased into around here.

To help me show no reaction, I glanced around at the trophy heads. Tiger, lion, rhino, a freaking elephant… a bunch of other species on the endangered lists. Which meant she'd either acquired them illegally, or killed them before they went on the list. Maybe both.

"Father's been busy," Lara said.

Danicka stepped from behind her desk. "Too busy to tour his own interests? Strange. He used to be so much more… hands-on."

Ooh, double-entendre.

Lara took a few stairs up to desk level, and I trailed along, a few stairs behind. "Oh, father's been throwing himself into work lately," she said. "New construction, film projects, of course. He has a new hunting preserve in Wisconsin." She took a seat. "He's hoping you'll drop by next month. You know, to help him get the first kill."

"Hunting 'preserve.' How quaint. None of his own children want to join him?"

"The smart ones don't," I said. I took a couple more stairs to be at eye level with our hostess.

Danicka gave a humorless, dry chuckle. "Ah, yes. The Winter Knight. The famed Harry Dresden."

"Famed? Really?" I took the last couple of steps and tried not to be obvious about looming over her. "Didn't know I had a reputation."

"Oh please, we both know you're lying. You're among empaths, wizard."

"Yes, I know. I was being sarcastic. Good to know you're over-reliant on that ability." I looked up at the trophies again. "Nice heads. Cut them off yourself?"

"Oh, I didn't use a knife," she said.

"Cool. So, do you know where I can find a Black Court vampire in this town?"

"According to my sources, you already did."

"Yeah, but you know how sneaky they are. Chase him ten blocks or so on foot, right into a Fomor nest, by the time you kill the Fomor, he's slipped away."

She turned and walked back behind the desk. "Why are you hunting him?"

"That's hardly important."

She shrugged. "You come to me with a question, I ask you one back. Balance. That's what your Queen wants, isn't it?"

I sighed, perhaps a little dramatically. "What she wants is a dead vampire." I made eye contact. Damned if she didn't blink first. I pulled out my pocket watch and very purposely looked at it instead of her. "Come on. I don't have all day. You have information that I need. A Black Court vamp running around town isn't good for business."

"Not bad for feeding, though."

"Not if he slaughters the kine," Lara said.

"Please. There are always more."

"This is a waste of time. Dani," I said, very purposely using a disrespectful nickname, "you have what I want. Are you going to give it to me, or do I have to add to my reputation?" I put the pocket watch away.

She paused for almost a full second. "You wouldn't dare."

"Look, I know you 'people'," and I used air quotes, "prefer to be subtle and deceptive when striking at each other, but I have no use for that. I'm far more direct. Ask the Red Court. And no one would take me to task for it. You may look human, but no vampire actually is, so the White Council wouldn't say boo. And as far as Mab is concerned, you're not the reigning power in the White Court, so she couldn't care less. Hell, I might even earn a few points."

She had become very still. "Your threat is pathetic. You would never get out of here alive."

I cracked my knuckles, one hand at a time. "One on one, I like my chances. This isn't your home, so there's no guest/host honor at stake. We both know Lara would probably stay out of it, for various reasons. And any goons you have aren't in this room right now, are they?"

"You're disgustingly blatant."

I shrugged. "Look at me and tell me I can't do it."

One of her lips curled up, and she made a disgusted sound. She grabbed a pad of paper and scribbled some lines out. Then she tossed it at me. I caught it one handed. "If he arranged a safehouse, he wouldn't have used his own name. Those are the only two locations that were recently arranged using names I couldn't trace. Take it. And get out."

I glanced at the paper. Two addresses. "Thank you."

I turned around, very deliberately showing my back to her, along with my disdain, and started away.

Lara was at my side as I passed back into the hallway. "Not as subtle as I hoped you would be, but quite effective," she whispered.

"What did I do that grossed her out?"

Lara bared her teeth. "You showed the one emotion with which she cannot deal."

"That being?"

"Confidence."

The elevator ride back down seemed a lot quicker. When we emerged back into the lobby, I noticed that the supervisor was nowhere to be seen. He could have been in the bathroom, or he could have been eviscerated in the basement; I wasn't sure and didn't really feel like sticking around to find out. Once we had finally stepped outside, back into the warm, noisy, bright street, I took a breath.

"Uncomfortable, wizard?"

I realized I was, but had been ignoring it. "Maybe. Just a little. You?"

"I'm used to dealing with Danicka."

"Has she always been like that?"

"Oh, yes. Her mother had very specific ways of raising children. In the same way that true love can kill the Hunger for the Raiths, true courage, bravery, and self-sacrifice have the same effect on the Malvora. They're raised to be bullies, not brave."

"Never thought I'd say this, but, on the whole, I prefer dealing with you."

She actually laughed at that. "Most people do." I followed her down the steps to the street, where a white town car appeared out of traffic. The driver got out; it was Mr. Talkative. He opened the door, and I clambered in after Lara. The car got moving. There was a glass barrier separating us from the driver. "Let me see the addresses," she said. I handed the pad over. "A condo in Coconut Grove, and a house in Coral Way. These are both in the south end of the city."

"We'll have to hit them both at the same time, to make sure he doesn't hear and take off."

"'We'?"

"Oh, come on. You want him dead, too."

"True, but he didn't come after me for a century. And still hasn't, I'll point out."

"Lara, you know you're a target."

"I don't, though. I know a destructive and manipulative Black Court vampire, who has recently been threatening, killing, or blackmailing other powers, has shown up in this city. This city, which I rarely come to, but which House Malvora holds."

"What, you think he's here to kill Danicka?"

"It makes more sense. He'd didn't have my travel itinerary, did he?"

I sat back. It did seem unlikely.

"On the other hand, my idiot brother is doubtless going to want to help you with this fool's errand, and I would be a terrible sister indeed if I didn't raise a finger to protect him."

I narrowed my eyes. "What's the catch?"

She didn't look at me. "He doesn't go in with you."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Which ever safe house you hit, he goes to the other one."

"Why?"

Now she did look at me. "We both know I'm not going to explain, and you are going to accept my help, regardless, so why talk about it?"

"Because you wouldn't put a caveat like that on this without a damn good reason, and I like to know as much as I can about dangerous situations I'm heading into, particularly when I'm leading friends into them. I'm funny like that."

She smiled, and it actually touched her eyes. "You are, aren't you?" She took a breath. "You have a reputation, wizard."

"So I've heard."

"No, not the threat you pose to enemies. To your allies."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Let's run down the list. Your first apprentice, murdered by a wild werewolf."

"She was acting without my - "

"Several of the police officers you used to work with, dead or crippled."

"They all knew the risks, and I did my best - "

"One Knight of the Cross dead, another grievously wounded."

I felt my jaw tighten.

"One of your pet werewolves had his throat ripped out by the same creature that later tortured Thomas himself."

"An old god," I said through teeth that didn't seem to want to separate.

"You've slain gods before. And I don't think I need to mention the numberless young Wardens injured and killed under your care. Nor the remarkable circumstances of your last apprentice."

I looked down and concentrated on opening my fists, which I did not remember making. I had to remind myself not to hit a girl. "The day I met you, you shot Thomas in the chest."

"I was aiming for you," she said. "Don't get me wrong, Dresden. I understand why you do what you do, and I know you don't mean for all the collateral damage to happen. But it does. And Thomas has already been a victim of your relationship more than once." I said nothing. Then she pushed a button with a little drawing of a speaker on it. Nothing happened except a tiny puff of smoke and a sudden smell of solder.

She looked at me. I forced my jaw open. "Gee, sorry about that."

She rolled her eyes and tapped on the glass. The driver did something and the partition slid down into the seat. "You got the redheaded girl's cell number, right?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Call her and my brother. Then send cars to collect them. We'll meet at the Melreese."

The Melreese is a golf course and country club. A nice one. It took the better part of 40 minutes to get there, and my stomach was starting to rumble. As you might imagine, Lara did not allow me to go inside. I passed the time leaning against the car in the parking lot, watching planes landing a couple miles away at the airport, glancing at my pocket watch, and giving strange looks to folks on their way in for a round.

I had made one request to Mr. Talkative before he hung up on Thomas, and as the Humvee pulled up, I smiled. My brother and Connie, wearing one of Marci's dresses and a pair of Andi's shoes, got out. Thomas smirked and tossed me a bag.

Smiling myself, I opened it up and took a deep breath. "You're a saint," I said, and pulled out a Whopper. "Wait a sec. Where are my fries?"

Connie stepped forward, mouth still full. "Apologies," she said, handing over the half empty fry bag. "I do love chips."

I eyed Thomas.

"What?" he said. "I got her a combo, too. She wolfed it down." He glanced around. "Speaking of which?"

"They'll be here in a minute," I said, and sank my teeth into the burger. "Anee if da rain?"

Thomas blinked. "What? Don't talk with your mouth full."

I swallowed. "Anything with the trains?"

"Oh. No. There are cops all over it, and the yard has safety crews swarming around. Couldn't get close enough."

I saw the limo pulling up. "That's about what I figured."

"Thomas," Lara said, "where's the man who brought your car to you?"

He shrugged. "I left him somewhere."

She sighed. I most definitely did not laugh.

The limo rolled to a stop, and Carlos popped out first, before Mr. Large even had the engine off. "Hey. The safehouse was a bust."

"Not too surprised. Cops?"

"No. That's just it." He helped Andi and Marci out.

"The place was cleaned," Andi said. "Even the window was replaced already."

Something twigged in my brain. Krejetzy didn't have that kind of pull locally.

Did he?

"I could smell blood in the air," Marci said as Carlos helped her out next. "But it was very faint. Whoever cleaned up did a thorough job."

"Fast one, too," Ramirez said.

"Speaking of moving fast," Lara said.

"Right," I said, rousing from my thoughts. "We have two possible locations we need to hit, at the same time, and as soon as possible. Preferably before sundown."

"They nearby?" Thomas asked.

"South of here, and not close to each other." I stepped closer to him. "Lara's offered a few men, but only if they all go with you."

He sighed and looked at her. "Seriously?" She said nothing. He gave her a fake smile that did not touch his eyes. "Fine." He looked at me again. "Where are we going?"

"There's a condo and a house."

He thought for a second. "I'll take the condo."

"Okay."

"And you will be careful."

"Obviously."

"I'm serious."

"So am I." I dropped the Burger King bag and pulled the notepad out of my pocket. I tore off the condo address and handed it to him. "So you'd also better be careful."

He nodded, and mercifully did not hug me. He walked back to the Humvee, asking Lara, "The team know where they're going?"

"They're already en route."

He got in the monster truck and was moving a few seconds later. I watched him leave, then I handed the pad to Mr. Large. He took the pad, glanced at it, then looked at Lara. She nodded. I snatched up my burger bag again – there was still another Whopper in it – and headed for the limo's back door. I held the door open, and looking at Lara, said, "Come on, folks. Let's go build a reputation."

The house was perfectly normal looking. A couple blocks from Shenandoah Park. Quiet neighborhood. It had a black metal fence. There were tall, thin palm trees all along the boulevard. It was one story, kind of U-shaped, clay tile roof. A fountain in the yard. All the blinds were drawn.

I walked down the other side of the street, trying to look casual. That was difficult in the duster, given the heat. Connie was walking towards me on the opposite side, cell phone in her hand. I'd convinced Mr. Large to loan Connie the phone; I'd asked about a gun, too, but she had declined.

I had to admit, she cut quite a figure; a perfect athlete's body, all lean muscle, dark hair and round face. Reminded me of Karrin, a lot.

Of course, that train of thought got me distracted, and I bumped into a car's fender. It didn't hurt – most things didn't, these days – but it snapped me back to reality.

Connie stopped walking, looking at the phone. She turned to me, and nodded. That was the signal; Thomas was going in, and had just sent a text message to Andi and Connie to let them know. I turned and ran at the house, dashing across the traffic-free street and vaulting the fence. Connie was just a couple paces behind me.

I had a shield ready, but didn't raise it. As I approached the door, I pointed the bottom end of my staff, where I had the magical equivalent of an invisible punching glove on a spring carved, and triggered the spell without breaking stride.

The door blew off its hinges, exploding into the house. I got my left hand through the remains of the frame and raised the shield. Even as the door came crashing down, I heard breaking glass and cracking wood from the back of the house; Carlos and the Alphas.

As the pieces of wood and metal sailed through the air, I tried to take in the whole living room at once. There was no furniture. There was only one occupant.

I saw Maggie.

I saw my daughter, lying motionless on the floor, covered in cuts and bruises, surrounded by a pool of blood. Even as my mind tried to comprehend what I was seeing, a baser, more instinctual part of me was already screaming in denial. My daughter was not here. She could not be dead.

But none of that was the worst part.

No, the worst part was when the corpse's eyes opened and looked at me.

The voice was wet and heavy and inhuman. "Daddy," it said.


	6. Chapter 6

I froze. I was simply unable to move. My concentration cracked, and the shield dropped. I had failed. I had failed in the worst way it was possible to fail: I had failed my child. "This is impossible," I heard myself say, but my voice was tiny and weak.

I heard cries and screams, growls and shouts, the sounds of walls and furniture being smashed. None of it mattered. None of it was important; for those few seconds, all that mattered was that I had failed. Later, I would reflect that those feelings were a good thing, an indicator that I had not slipped too far down the slope into the Winter mantle. At that moment, however, I couldn't think. I couldn't feel. I couldn't do anything but stare.

The moment passed.

"Wizard, get down!" Connie threw herself at me, and stunned as I was, I dropped like a wet noodle, and she landed on top of me.

A freaking _harpoon_ sailed through the space we'd been occupying and sank into the wall next to the remains of the door. I saw her snap her head up, a look of sheer terror on her face, eyes wide and breathing heavy.

By not looking at Maggie, I found I was suddenly able to think. And seeing Connie's reaction, something clicked. That wasn't Maggie over there, on the floor at all.

It was a phobophage. A fear-eating demon.

Swinging my right arm free of the selkie, I rolled up onto my left elbow and took aim at a man in a wetsuit - with no face - holding the harpoon gun. "_Forzare_!"

The phobophage blew backwards into a bedroom, taking out a large portion of the doorjamb as it went.

I heard a howl and a scream from the back of the house, then a shout and the song of metal on metal. I turned that way and saw the Maggie impersonator. "Get out of my head! _Fuego_!"

I had just a half-second to question whether I should have sent fire screaming across the room – _what if it really was her?!_ – and then the creature dashed to the side, catching only about half the blast. The remainder touched the wall and set it alight. She – it? – rolled to the floor, growling in defiance. Its head turned around completely to look at me before each of its limbs popped and bent backwards. Screaming, she started to scuttle away.

I pushed Connie up to her feet. "Help the others in the back!" I said, and hopped to my feet to chase the thing that dared to use my daughter's face.

The harpoon gunner lumbered out of the bedroom as I passed. Before I could react, Connie's hands grabbed it around the neck and it lurched into the air, harpoon and all. She pulled it up in a surprisingly graceful arc, then slammed it back down, face first, into the floor. There was a 'crack' that I was sure had nothing to do with the subfloor.

"Go," the selkie said, and started past me, heading for the kitchen. I turned and saw Maggie's backwards-pointing foot vanishing through a doorway. Two steps brought me to the top of a set of dark stairs.

"Of course," I mumbled. "Another freaking basement." I didn't give myself time to think. The anger I was feeling was keeping any fear I might have had at bay, and stopping to think would let the fear get a foothold. I took a couple steps and fumbled for a light switch. I found it, and the light actually came on. Then it promptly burned out. Wizard!

Without taking it off my neck, I willed energy into my amulet, and the stairwell – which sat against one wall, on the left, and was otherwise open, including between the stairs – lit up with faint blue light.

I stomped down, turning my back to the wall to let the light shine in every direction, and readied a shield. Unlike the floor above, the basement was quite average; concrete walls, and full of the usual detritus. I saw a washer and dryer in a far corner, some chairs and a table, all broken, stacked together with some boxes in the middle of the floor. Two tiny windows, on the far wall and the rear wall, caked with dirt and letting hardly any light through. I ignored the sounds of scuffle from above, and continued to the bottom of the stairs.

The phobophage was most likely hiding behind the pile of boxes and stuff. So, the question became should I go around to the right, or the left? Two choices.

I hate having only two choices.

"_Forzare_!" Taking the third option, I just knocked the pile over. The Maggie-abomination skittered to the right as everything came down on it. "Not so fast! _Fuego_!"

It danced backwards, and the fire hit the wall, rather harmlessly, though it did instantly get warmer in the basement. I backed up to the stairs to prevent it from getting away. It wasn't a vampire, but it was a demon, and it had stolen my daughter's face. It was _not_ getting away from me. The Winter Mantle growled its approval, and I felt my eyes widen, and the darkness fade a little.

The little phage had vanished behind one of the spilled boxes. Boxes, made of cardboard. Surrounded by wooden furniture. "Your mistake, bitch," I said, and sent flame licking at the whole pile. The phage jumped out, screaming with Maggie's mouth mounted on a spider's body. I kept up the fire, moving in an arc to make sure I got the whole area and it had nowhere to go. "No one uses that against me!"

It jumped up to the support beams and changed form as it hung, suddenly looking like a little girl again, albeit one with spikes for fingers. The face took on Maggie's innocence and youth again. "Daddy?" it said. "What are you doing?" It sounded scared.

I choked off the fire as my breath caught in my throat. I hesitated for a second.

"Dresden!" I heard Carlos shouting from the top of the stairs. "We got to go! I need you up here!"

I snapped back to reality. This was not Maggie, not even a little bit. I looked around. Everything was burning. The boxes, the chairs, the ceiling. I looked the thing in the face again as the fire continued to grow. I shook my head. "You'll have to do better than that."

The face contorted into something grotesque and inhuman, and hissed at me. I sent one last blast of flame at it, then turned and dashed up the steps.

I emerged into a warzone. The kitchen was a disaster, with the fridge turned over and several cupboards ripped from the walls. A big pile of rapidly evaporating ectoplasm left no clue what the others had been fighting, but if it was that big, I didn't want to know. The kitchen table – which, oddly, had a table cloth – had been turned over, too.

Marci was human, crouching over Andi, who was sprawled on the floor. There was blood on her skin from a dozen or so shallow flesh wounds. Connie had a nasty bleeder from her scalp, and was helping Ramirez stand. "Hell's bells," I cursed.

"My leg's giving out," Carlos said.

And on top of all that, the fire I'd accidentally lit in the living room had already swallowed the front end of the house.

"She took a hit to the head," Marci said. "She's kind of out of it." I tossed my staff to Marci, then knelt down and picked up Andi's naked, bloody form. Her eyes were glassy, but she got her arms around my neck and made a weak sound that might have been my name.

"Let's get the hell out of here! Marci, grab that tablecloth!"

I kicked what was left of the back door and it blew off its hinges. I carried Andi into the back yard, which was enclosed by a tall fence. Marci spread the cloth and I placed Andi down, as gently as I could. Connie dropped Carlos and pulled out the cell phone. I checked Andi over as quickly as I dared, paying as little attention to her skin as I could. That was… difficult, but keyed up as I was, I managed to focus. Oddly, some of her cuts seemed to be closing already.

"How the hell?"

"It's a technique we've been working on for a while," Marci said. "Most flesh wounds are no problem." She stroked Andi's hair away from her face.

The redhead's eyes fluttered open. "Ow," she said, and closed them again.

I shook my head and looked at Ramirez. "What did you go up against?"

He shrugged. "I haven't got a damn clue. It was big, and furry, and angry. That's all I know."

"It was a wolfman," Marci muttered. "The Lon Chaney version. Only _huge_. It's… it's…" She trailed off.

"It's a fear you all have. Makes sense," I said. "Those were phobophages."

"Son of a bitch," Carlos said. "Obviously. Damnit."

I looked at Connie, who was just hanging up. "Did you call for the car?"

"He'll be here in two minutes. We need to get out front." She took a step closer.

"Wait. Call my… call the other team."

She backed away and started dialing again.

"Spider-sense tingling?" Carlos asked.

I nodded. "I don't like to think it, but I'd lay dollars to doughnuts we were set up. And if we were, what happened to the other team?" Fighting down fear and anger, I wrapped Andi in the tablecloth and lifted her again. "Marci, help Carlos get out front."

By now, the smoke was starting to billow out the door. I headed for the side of the house and moved between the fence and the brick. One of the windows blew out not five feet in front of me, and I turned to keep my duster between Andi and the glass.

In the front yard, I found the gate and kicked it. It didn't let go on the first try, and that made me angrier. So, I kicked again. And again. The third one did it, and while the padlock held, the bracket itself tore from the fence. The limo pulled up not five seconds later. I saw two faces poking out from a window across the street and tried not to let them see my whole face. Mr. Large jumped out and opened the back door for us, and Marci helped me get Andi inside.

Ten seconds later, we were in motion.

"Connie? Did you reach them?"

She nodded. "Aye. Mr. Raith is fine. Two of his men died, though. And another one's iffy. And Krejetzy wasn't there."

I ground my teeth and made fists.

"Harry? You okay?" Carlos asked.

Through teeth that did not separate, I said, "No. No, I am not. I hate being used, Carlos. But more than that, I hate when a friend of mine gets hurt because some fucking vampire bitch decided to play a game."

He grunted. Very quietly, he said, "Last time that happened, didn't you start a war?"

The sides of my mouth pulled up, but judging from Marci and Connie's looks of discomfort, the expression on my face could not have been called a smile. "Yes," I said, "that it exactly what happened. And you know how it ended." I pushed my way to the front of the limo and knocked on the glass. It came down. "I need to talk to your lady-boss," I said.

According to Lara, it took about half an hour to get to Danicka's mansion, in Hughes Grove. I took almost two hours because I had to make a couple of stops first.

But I still looked plenty pissed off when I blew the front door off its hinges with a blast of fire.

The place was nice, at the end of an exclusive cul-de-sac in a gated community, less than a two minute walk to the ocean. It was mostly hidden by expertly-planned and maintained foliage. Lots of windows. I understood it had seven bedrooms.

Thomas drove me in the Humvee. The guard at the gate hadn't been a problem once he realized the guy had been fed on before. "You sure you don't want me to come in with you?" he had asked once we were parked.

"I'm sure. For this part, I need to go alone."

"Be careful." I'd given him a devil-may-care grin, hopped out, and door, hinges, fire.

"Danicka!" I shouted. Five armed guards appeared with automatic weapons in hand. They were easier to deal with than the einherjaren, but only because I was ready. A solid shield before I even stepped out of the doorway, followed by a couple of quick force spells put all five of them on the floor. The main floor was mostly open, and there was no one else coming for me. "Danicka!" I shouted again. "It's rude to ignore me!"

I took a few steps inside, and felt the barest tingle of a threshold. No mortals had lived here for a while, so I didn't have to leave any power at the door. Every light in the front hall blew out, some of them aggressively, leaving a carpet of glass. As I stepped through it, crunching now the only sound, I found could see into the backyard, where a huge in-ground pool was surrounded by more armed guards, who were snapping into action.

Then, for a moment, everything was silent, and the mortal guards, who had disappeared from view, were nowhere to be found. Thoughts interrupted me: _Where are they? Can they see me? What are they doing?_

My head snapped around at a sudden noise, and my heart rate shot up. I was afraid…

And the instant I noticed, its hold was gone. I forced myself to bark out a laugh, and that made an actual laugh easier. Recalling old mental exercises, I erected barriers in my mind, and the sensation of fear completely subsided.

"Nice try. But I'm a little too angry to be scared. And if you keep ignoring me - " two guards, dressed in matching cheap suits, stepped around the end of the hall, guns trained on me – "_Forzare_!" They flew backwards, one of them shattering a window and covering them both in glass. "As I was saying, if you keep ignoring me, I'm going to think you're afraid to face me." I paused for dramatic effect as I rounded the corner and started down the hall to the garage. "And so will everyone else," I finished.

I moved quickly down the hall, my left hand in my pocket. "Trying to make a break for it?" I shouted. "Do I have to burn this place down, too?" I reached the garage and shoved open the door. The two car-sized doors were closed, and only one vehicle was present; Danicka's own brand-new, solid black Lamborghini.

I chuckled to myself and stepped close to the car, running my hand over one of the fancy vents, my fingers darting just inside and squeezing. "Well, someone certainly knows how to live large."

"I do," a voice said from behind me. I turned to see Lady Malvora leaning against the door jamb. "Can I help you with something, Winter Knight? Problem, perhaps?"

Gritting my teeth, I very quietly said, "You set me up."

She said nothing, and didn't move a muscle, just gazed at me.

"You sent me and mine in to clear out a phobophage infestation. You used me to kill some competition."

She lifted an eyebrow.

"You must be so proud of yourself."

"You know how the game is played." She did finally smile and take a step into the garage. "One does not get ahead by letting opportunities slip by."

"I've got a damn fine opportunity to incinerate you where you stand."

"Try it. I'm faster than you. But feel free to destroy anything else you want, obviously."

"Obviously?"

"Of course. The whole Court knows that House Raith shares a bond with you, Sir Knight. Hell, one of them drove you here. Your failure today, and your sad little attempt to even the scales by force, will tarnish House Raith. So please," she said, spreading her arms, "give me more to show them. My car, perhaps?"

I let energy flow through me and into my staff, lighting up the carved runes with golden light. I looked at the car, and appeared to seriously consider it. Then I let the light fade. "You're not worth it." For another moment, I just stood there and seethed. Finally, I took a step towards her and looked down. "If you ever - " I began.

She rolled her head back. "Oh, _empty night_, you are a walking cliché. Get out of my house, Wizard. Before I remove you."

I grinned at her. "And get your hands dirty?"

"Who said I would use my hands?" She stepped to the side and held out an arm towards the door like Vanna White.

I gave her one last withering look, and stomped off down the hall, around the corner and out the front door.

All the while, trying to hide my smile.

I clambered into the Humvee, and Thomas got us moving right away. I glanced into the back where Marci, Carlos and Connie were waiting.

"Did it work?" Carlos asked.

"I think so," I said. "Lara was right; Danicka drives herself everywhere, and only has one car because having another would look weak." I pulled my pocket watch out, its chain now half the length it used to be. "The links are stuck to the inside of her car. That epoxy will hold, right?" I asked Marci.

"Absolutely. Fastest on the market," she said.

"I hope so; it was expensive enough."

"Isn't Karrin going to be mad about the whole 'no direct confrontation' promise you made?" Thomas asked.

"You heard that?" I asked.

"Vampire," he said.

I sighed. "Don't worry. This wasn't a direct confrontation. It was a misdirect. A misdirect confrontation."

"You honestly think she'll buy that?"

I hesitated.

"Women are a lot smarter than you might think, Dresden," Carlos said. "Tougher, too."

I felt a spike of guilt and turned in my seat. "How's Andi?"

Marci spoke up. "She should be fine. I spoke to the doctor right after you went charging in there. They said it was mostly bruises, some soft tissue damage and maybe a mild concussion. No internal bleeding." She shook her head. "It's kind of nice that the Court has doctors on stand-by. It would have been impossible to explain everything at a vanilla hospital."

"We don't have them everywhere," Thomas said, "but if you're in one of the ten biggest cities in the country or so? Yeah. You're covered." My brother pulled us off the road, and into a Burger King parking lot. He carefully parked behind the building, making it difficult to see the road – and thus, to be seen _from_ the road.

I sat in the back of the truck, weaving the tracking spell, focused on my watch. I suspended it from a hook in the ceiling. Once the spell was released and I broke the circle of sand I had laid out, the watch, against gravity, leaned east, back towards the rest of the chain. And it stayed there for a while, just hanging, lazily leaning in the same direction. I had begun to wonder if I'd miscalculated, if my hunch about Danicka Malvora was wrong as the sun beaded down. But I couldn't afford to think that way. I had to send Marci and Carlos into the Burger King for food, while I sat and waited.

"You really think you're right about this?" Thomas asked.

"I had better be. We don't have any other leads."

"But you heard Lara. Krejetzy hates the White Court. Why would he work with any of us?"

"I don't know, honestly. But it's the only thing that makes sense right now."

Most of the food was gone before the watch suddenly jerked and moved.

"She's moving," I said. I had a map of the city laid out before me. "She's leaving her neighborhood."

"Are we sure it's even her?" Connie asked before shoving fries in her mouth. "Couldn't someone else be driving the car?"

"Sign of weakness," Thomas said. "No decoys, no misdirects; goes against the fear-monger instinct. All White Court are manipulative liars, but they all do it differently. Raiths are subtle and seductive, Skavis are brutal and mouthy, Malvora like to be physical and in your face."

"Why?"

He gave her a mirthless grin. "It's so that you can't see the knife in your back. They like to be very upfront about themselves, but have the actual damage done by others. They like forcing people in to situations, backing them into corners, then watching as they get played with by others. They consider anything less to be unworthy. The rest of us consider them to be base, crass assholes."

"Delightful family you got," Carlos said, finishing his Pepsi with a big slurping sound.

"Yeah," I said, "the reunions get a bit explosive, but you already knew that." Carlos snorted. "She's heading north. Should be passing by us shortly."

Thomas shoved the big truck into gear, and waited. I watched the watch as it began to swing in a quick arc. I looked through a window at a small slit of road visible from our parking spot. An expensive, Italian-designed black blur shot by. "There she goes. Head north."

He hit the gas. The chase was on.

**A/N: If you're enjoying this story, thank you for reading, and reviews are most welcome! **

**Now for a shameless plug: If you're interested, I recently had an original piece published as part of the anthology **_**Love, Loss, Longing**_**, now available on Amazon. A lot of good, up-and-coming authors are represented in there, so I encourage you to take a look!**


	7. Chapter 7

The chase was almost over. Thomas went around a corner with the barest touch to the brakes, and I found my face pushed into a window. Peeling my cheek from the glass, I shouted, "I said, 'turn right here', not 'come about'."

"Sorry. Wanted to beat the light."

Thomas was still driving a bit angry, but at least he now had a focus for it. Traffic was light for once, and he kept the hammer down.

"This reminds me of a roller coaster I once rode at a travelling carnival," Carlos said. "It fell apart two days later and three people went to hospital."

"I can make this comfy and lose her, or you can put on your big-warden pants."

"Hey, I never said I didn't _enjoy_ the roller coaster."

"How's the leg?" Marci asked.

He touched it where it lay on the floor between them, wrapped some sort of thin tube filled with water, which was glowing. "Just about re-charged. Should be good for an hour or two already."

I kept shouting directions and glancing at the map. I left it to Thomas to avoid or run the stops. Eventually I said, "She's stopped, and not far ahead," and looked up.

We were on 20th Street, heading into the Sunset Harbor Yacht Club. At least that's what the map said; there was no sign I could see. "Park. She's got to be here."

Thomas pulled onto the flat median and stood on the brakes. We screeched to a stop and I nearly lost my neck to the seatbelt. Connie actually slipped out of her seat. Snagging the watch from its hook, I popped open the door and hopped out. It continued to lean against gravity, pointing right at the building.

"Okay, she must be inside."

"She's here for her boat," Thomas said.

"Her boat?"

"She has a yacht. _The Shark_."

"_The_ _Shark_?" Carlos asked.

"Yeah, I know. It's a bit obvious."

"So how do we get through?" I asked.

"Over there," Connie said. She was pointing off to the right where I saw a fountain in a green lot. "I've been here before. There's no guards, just a fence and a camera."

Carlos and I exchanged a glance. "No problem," he said. A moment later, the camera was fried, and we were all over the fence. The sun was touching the western horizon, and shadows from the skyline were stretching out over Biscayne Bay. The small ships tethered to the docks all looked fancy and expensive and, to my eye, pretentious. There was just something plain and honest about Thomas' boat, the _Water Beetle_. It was a retired fishing trawler, designed for function. These boats were all about form.

I pressed up against the side of the building and looked around. There was only one yacht pulling away from the dock. "Thomas?"

He poked his head around and squinted. "Yup, that's her."

"Of course."

"Now what do we do?" Marci asked.

"Rent a boat?" Carlos suggested.

"They'd spot us instantly," Thomas said.

"I need a minute to think," I said. It was too late to plant anything on the yacht to work another tracking spell, and the water would short out the magic anyway, but if she was heading for dry land somewhere, say one of the Keys, then maybe… but I would need to know which one before I could… how the hell was I supposed to -

"I can follow the boat," Connie said.

Bingo.

My head snapped up. "Can you take me with you?"

She nodded thoughtfully. "Aye, if you're willing to get wet."

I smiled. "Then I have a plan."

Less than ten minutes later, I had 'found' a surfboard and made Thomas leave $300 cash in its place. A lanyard was a little harder to find, but not impossible, and Thomas ended up leaving cash for that, too. "This is a stupid plan, Harry," he said.

"Is telling me that the only reason you come along on these little trips?"

"Well, it's the main reason." He touched my shoulder and I stopped walking, surfboard tucked under one arm, staff in the other. "Look, they're going to be able to see you."

"It's about to be dark, I'll be far behind on rough water, and I can lift a partial veil if I'm desperate. Besides, we know part of the plan will work, since it already has. At least, once I'm dry."

He sighed. "I know. I just had to say it. Don't die, okay?"

"I'll make that promise if you promise me something."

"Sure."

"Have a long talk with Justine."

"Beg your pardon?"

"You guys are trying to build a life together, whatever the issue is, you have to sort it."

"Seriously? _You're_ giving me relationship advice?"

"I'm the only person in the world worse at it than you. Which makes me qualified to tell you when something is wrong."

He shook he head. "All right. All right, fine. I'll talk to her."

"Pinky swear?"

"Sit on it."

"Wizard!" Connie. "We will lose her if we don't leave soon!"

Thankfully, there were few people around on the docks. I did not need to draw more attention to myself right now.

Thomas and I hurried down the dock to where the others stood. "Still got her?" I asked as I handed my staff to Carlos.

"For the moment," Connie said, "but they're moving pretty quickly."

I bent over and pulled off my boots and socks.

"You're keeping the coat?" Marci asked.

I sighed. Reluctantly, I doffed it and handed it over. I hated going anywhere without it – I felt naked without it, really – but it would only make the trip worse, and who knew what I would lose from my pockets, or what effect hours in the ocean would have on the enchantments. Not to mention that leather doesn't really like water.

"Good luck," she said.

I nodded to Connie.

She pulled off her borrowed dress, handing it to Marci. Naked, she dropped into the water. A second later, a seal bobbed back up, looking at me expectantly. Thomas handed me the bar on the lanyard, and made a loop out of the hook end, which he laid in the water. Connie got the loop in her mouth and started swimming. I dropped the board, then hopped in myself, making a splash, then laid flat on the surfboard. The water was cool, but still warmer than I had been expecting. A second later, the line tensed and I was off.

Half an hour later, I had to agree with Thomas; this _was_ a stupid plan. I was soaked, obviously. I had almost been run-over, or whatever the nautical equivalent was, three times leaving Biscayne Bay. And despite the mantle and my own regular workout regime, my arms were starting to ache. I tried adjusting my position, and it helped a bit, but I knew lifting my arms after this ride was likely going to suck.

In addition, the waves were taller than I had expected, and I nearly drowned about once every ten seconds, on average. I couldn't even really see them coming, as once we were away from shore, the darkness got thick, fast.

Half an hour after that, I was in abject misery. To distract myself, I started thinking. At first I was playing Star Wars in my head; for some reason, the trash compactor scene got stuck on repeat. After that, I decided to focus on the situation at hand. There were a lot of players in the game, and one or two I hadn't seen yet, but anticipated. And more than a few of them wanted to kill me, or would be required to. I wondered where Fix was.

Another half hour or so, and I thought I had a few things figured out, but a sudden mouthful of sea water derailed my train of thought. I started hacking, and it took a second to realize the lanyard had gone slack. I looked up, but could only see a few tiny lights in the distance.

"Dresden," a voice said.

I looked off to the left. "Connie?"

"Aye." It was a struggle to focus with little but moonlight, but I found her. She was human again, and had a hand clamped onto the side of the surfboard. "They've put in." She nodded at the lights ahead as we floated, bobbing in the waves. "There are guards everywhere."

"Island?" She nodded. I thought for a second. We were in the Florida Keys. I had no idea which one. Land on one side, the Atlantic on the other. "Are we on the landward side?"

"We are."

"Can we approach from the seaward side?"

"We can try, though the waves will get worse. How are you holding up?"

I clamped my legs around the board, squeezed my elbows together, and lifted my chest a little. The feeling was weird, and I assumed my skin would be red from the constant contact. I rolled my neck. "Should be fine. Let's just get to shore."

"If you say so." She put the rope back in her mouth and rippled. A few seconds later, she was pulling me out to sea. This meant that instead of waves coming from one side, and me slipping up and over them, I was basically charging head-first into them. This raised my near-drownings-per-minute to about 60. I also noticed that the temperature of the water dropped significantly. Where the hell was the Gulf Stream?

I couldn't keep my eyes open without getting salt water in them, but wouldn't have seen much anyway in the dark. I just had to trust Connie. At some point, the waves stopped actively trying to kill me, and they moved once again to my side. In the wan light of a crescent moon, I could see a blot of pure black against a backdrop of midnight blue. The island. With no lights.

Connie, human once again, floated beside me. "I can see no one."

"I can't confirm that from here," I said, and I vaguely noticed that my teeth were clicking together. "Just have to risk it."

"I'll have you on shore in about a minute." Again she floated away and the line tightened up. For the first time, the waves were coming from behind, and I found I could keep my eyes focused. The black blot grew, and if I looked up, I could see a few stars blinking – treetops were swaying in a wind. The darkness combined with my growing trepidation and left me thinking of Demonreach; for the first time in a while, I'd be at a complete disadvantage on an island. I didn't like the idea much.

After what seemed like infinity minutes, I saw a shadow of Connie's human form step up in the water, and continue to rise. Needing to move my muscles, I slipped off the board and touched sand with my feet. I stood in the surf, taking slow steps. I thought I saw her head turn, and she waited for me to catch up. Most of my chest was out of the water, and I became aware of a breeze. Slowly, I began to move my shoulders, not wanting to do any damage to the muscles and knowing I wouldn't feel it if I did.

"Are you well, Winter Knight?" she stage-whispered over the sound of the waves.

"I think so. And please call me Harry."

"I can do that." She pulled the board along until the water was at our waists, then picked it up.

As we reached the shoreline, I felt the immense relief I think most people get when their body stops fighting the water and can move at normal speed again. I was so happy in that moment, that I almost didn't feel the ward.

"Whoa, whoa, wait."

"What?"

I knelt down and put my hand in the sand. The waves didn't quite come up this far. I extended my arcane senses into the ground, not unlike at the Fomor house. It was an anti-magic ward, just like the one at the Malvora bank. In fact, it was exactly like the one at the bank, and just like the tripwire at the house. I wasn't sure how I had missed the connection before.

Danicka had a Fomor sorcerer throwing up her wards. That should have been impossible, since the White Court was technically at war with the Fomor.

"Naughty, naughty, Danicka."

"What's wrong, Harry?" Connie knelt down next to me.

"Danicka has a security system." I ran a finger across the wet sand. "I can't cross this line."

"So what? We're stuck on the beach?"

"I am. You can go in; you're not a wizard. It's the magic that…"

"What?"

Now, before I related what happened next, I would like to make one thing very clear: over the years, I've become convinced that something, out there, in the universe, has it in for me. I've called it the Black Council, and it calls itself the Circle. But even I know that sometimes, Bad Things just happen at awkward times.

I reached around, into my back pocket. The thorn cuff was still there. I pulled it out.

"What's that?"

I smirked. "My access card." I snapped it on.

Instantly, I was cold. And wet. And heavy. And exhausted. I fell forward, across the line, flat on my face. I could not move. The ache in my muscles, the cold on my skin, a sudden shortness of breath, and of course the wind chose that moment to pick up. I started shaking, and my teeth began to chatter. If the alarm had gone off, the guards would be here any second, and we'd be dead. And I barely had the strength to move. No, Connie had to run. Or swim. I opened my mouth to tell her to go, to get out before they could find her.

"Easy, Harry, I've got you." Small, strong hands rolled me over onto my back, and worked the buttons on my shirt, then pulled it open. Then there was skin, flesh against my flesh. She didn't rest on me; she was just on top of me, not pushing down. That was nice, since I wouldn't have been able to breathe otherwise.

It was barely warmer than the air, at first. But after a few seconds, that changed, and I felt the cold leaving my lungs. As my chest rose and fell, so did hers. Her arms were squeezing mine, rubbing my sides, my fingers, my ears, getting the sand off my face. "Come on, clear your head. Remember what warmth is, you daft bastard. Don't leave me out here alone. You've got a vampire to kill, and I'm sure as hell not doing that for you."

My eyes fluttered open. Someone needed me. _She_ needed me. If I died, her debt was left unpaid.

She vanished from my chest and I felt her hands on my feet. After a moment, I could feel my toes again. I grunted and moved my legs. "There, that's better." Then she was on top of me again, and one of her arms snaked under my neck, the other rubbing up and down my side. Warmth continued to spread.

A little while later, maybe seconds, maybe minutes, I almost felt normal, if cold. I wrapped an arm around her. "Thank you," I whispered.

"Well, I can't very well help you if you're dead, now can I?" Her accent made it sound like, 'I canna very well 'elp'. I found it delightful, and smiled.

"What would you name a daughter?" I asked.

"Beg your pardon?"

"Friend of mine is about to have a daughter. He's looking for names."

"Oh. Well, I have an aunt named Millie. Strong woman."

"If you think she's strong, I'd hate to run into her in a dark alley."

She barked out a laugh. "Feeling better, are we?"

"I am."

"Good." Her free hand came up to my face. She left it there for a second. "Good," she repeated.

A suddenly became very forcefully aware that she was still naked. My heart sped up a little, and full consciousness roared in with the blood pressure. "We, uh, we should get going." I tried to sit up, but she held on with those powerful arms of hers.

"Are you sure? There are legends about us selkies, you know. They're not all true, but… we do know what we're doing." She wore a grin I could only call 'mischievous'.

Huh. "Look, I like you, Connie. You're funny, nice, and," I glanced down at my pelvis, "we both know I'd be lying if I said you weren't attractive. Oh, and your ability to ignore danger in favor of sex is just inspiring. But you also know loyalty."

"Ah," she said, relaxing her grip. Her expression changed to something else that I couldn't identify. "Lady back home? Or fellow?"

"Lady," I said. I stood, then offered my hand, trying not to look at her body. She took it and let me help her up. I peeled off my shirt and offered it to her.

"Oh, a gentleman." She accepted the shirt, which hung almost to her knees, and started buttoning it up. "So, now what?"

"We head inland, quietly. Then we see what there is to see, and wait for back up." I took a few more steps away from the shoreline. "But first, need to make with the magic." I reached into my back pocket. I was empty. I had a moment's panic, but then I remembered I'd put the key in my other back pocket. Except it wasn't there, either. Then I tried my front pockets. Then the back ones again. At the bottom of the left one, I felt a small opening. A hole. My finger could slide right through it. "Oh, no."

"Harry? Are you all right?"

"No. Oh, nononononono."

"What? What's wrong?"

I sagged, my hands empty, as I realized that a Bad Thing had happened, and felt monumentally stupid. "The key to the cuff is gone." It was physically painful to say it out loud. "Probably on the sea floor by now." I turned to her. "I can't use magic."


	8. Chapter 8

"Are you sure?" she said.

"Yes," I hissed, suddenly angry. Mostly at myself. "Yes, I am very sure. Stars and stones, this is the dumbest thing I've ever done." I thought about it for a second. "Or at least top five." Both of my hands went to the bridge of my nose, then rubbed my eyes. This was not happening. Why the hell had I not put the key on the amulet's chain? With the cuff in place, I couldn't use magic, and I had no access to the Winter Knight's mantle.

"Can we break it?"

I dropped my hands. "It's a five-metal alloy, mostly iron and silver, wrought by svartalves."

She made a crinkled face and a sound that was similar to, "Oooh."

"Yeah. The only way it comes off is with the key, or a blowtorch. And then I might as well just cut my arm off."

No polite way to say it.

We were fucked.

"Does this change the plan?" she asked.

"What?"

"Does this change the plan? Will the others still be able to find us?"

I touched the amulet around my neck. "Yes. Yes, they can still find us." Had to think clearly. No time for panic. "Once Carlos arrives, with that magnificent spell-cutting Warden's sword of his, maybe we can figure something out. In the meantime, you're right; stick to the plan."

"So we head in?"

I nodded. "Yes." I turned, took one step, and jerked my foot back. I'd found a sharp rock the hard way. "Dammit. I should have kept my boots."

"That would have been bad for your feet and the boots. If you're not worried about getting your shirt back, we can rip off the sleeves and wrap them around your feet."

"What about you?"

She shook her head. "Used to it. I have thick skin."

I took a breath. "Okay."

A few minutes later, we were moving through the brush, my feet wrapped in the remains of my shirt sleeves. I found it hard to believe a piece of prime real estate like this was still covered in trees, rather than cleared and beach-y, but if the Malvoras owned the whole island, they probably weren't interested in beaches.

I felt blind. No arcane senses to rely upon. I couldn't even will light through the amulet. I tried wiggling the cuff a few times, but it had been custom made; it wasn't going anywhere. And I wasn't quite at the point of chopping away pieces of my body.

After a few minutes of total darkness, getting slapped with leaves and branches and swarmed by bugs, I began to reconsider. I'd never had a mosquito bite on a nipple before, but hey, first time for everything. I let out a tiny, frustrated groan.

"Harry? Are you all right?" Connie asked from behind me.

I started pulling at the cuff again. "You know, maybe life without a right hand wouldn't be too bad. I could learn to write with my left. Wouldn't affect the magic too much, if at all. I could wear a hook."

"Yes, I'm sure your lady-friend would have no problem with that at all."

"She's seen worse."

A branch snapped. I froze, even holding my breath. Behind me, Connie did the same.

On Demonreach, I simply knew what was out there at all times. It was kind of funky literally being one with the land. I don't think most people really understand what it means when they say it. If I wanted to know something about the island, anything, I simply did. Number of hornet's nest (and how best to avoid them); number deer, both running and standing; healthiest and sickest trees; best paths and most annoying obstacles. I simply _knew_.

I hadn't realized how much I had come to rely on that little talent. Just like the White Court and their empathic powers, I got used to having that information at hand, so much so that it felt unnatural to be fumbling about in the dark. On Demonreach, I didn't need light to get around.

Here, different story. My eyes had begun to adjust, but there was so little light filtering through the trees, it hardly made a difference. After a few seconds, I heard a tiny, scurrying sound.

I let out my breath. "It's okay," I whispered. "It's just a squirrel."

"Actually, it wasn't," she said. Her voice sounded tight. Not quite afraid, but…

I turned around slowly. A flashlight clicked on, right in my face. I squinted and raised an arm. Another light. And another.

My eyes finally adjusted, and I could see Connie, a hand wrapped around her throat and a handgun held to the back of her head. Both belonged to a Fomor servitor, a big, ugly, pale-fleshed, and _stealthy_ asshole in a turtleneck.

I glanced around at the other light sources. A couple of Einherjaren, a few more Fomor. All armed, all pointing at me. All well outside my reach.

I grunted. "Well. Shit."

"Turn around and walk," Stealthy said.

I wanted to say something snarky, like, "What? Into a tree?" I really did. But not when a friend – a new friend, but a friend nonetheless, and a woman to boot – had a gun to her head with malicious intent. So instead I held my hands a little away from my sides, and turned, slowly. Another Einherjar warrior, with a chest approximately the size of a beer keg, was there with his own flashlight, and he turned to lead me into the woods. I recognized his beard; he was one of the guys I had put into a wall yesterday.

"Try to escape, and I will kill her," Stealthy said from behind me.

I clenched my fists and my jaw and said nothing.

As much as I was mad at myself for getting caught, and getting Connie caught, I had to admit, walking was a lot easier with all the light. To distract myself from the self-recrimination, I tried to focus on getting out of this mess. I had to collect details.

The escort led us from the foliage onto a meticulously manicured lot, with what the locals probably called a 'weekend home': a two-storey mansion in ultra-modern style, covered in the searing white light of half a dozen spot lights. The lot reminded me of the Raith estate in Chicago. The house reminded me of the bank I had seen that morning: Sleek, lots of glass, lots of steel, very little wood, all right angles. No soul, as far as I was concerned.

I could finally see our whole escort; five each of Einherjar and servitors. And if I wasn't much mistaken, they seemed to be wary of each other. A sharp look here, a step away there.

Interesting.

I could also see the yacht, docked in plain view about 50 yards away at the end of a custom built dock, lit up and under guard, two pairs of Einherjar and servitors. We were barely twenty feet from the water. Connie might have made it, but I had no way of signaling her. Or taking out 10 armed guards with no magic.

They marched us through the yard, around a pool – who the hell needs a pool twenty feet from the ocean? – and through the front door without stopping. Then down a hall and into a huge dining room. I only knew it was a dining room because of the table that put Lara's conference table to shame. The house was lit up in the same harsh light as outside, except for one far corner. I could see Krejetzy sitting there. It looked like the lamp and overhead nearest him had been shattered.

"Stop here," the einherjar said. I stopped. He stood a little off to the side. I could see Danicka standing near Krejetzy, and they were not having a friendly conversation. I tried to look uncomfortable, and focused on my sense of hearing. I started to Listen.

" – ing to get annoyed. I have other obligations," Krejetzy was saying.

"In the last century, have I let you down?" Danicka asked. Her voice had a challenging edge to it.

"Twice," he said, though he didn't go into detail.

She crossed her arms. "You wanted revenge on Lord Raith, you'll have it soon."

"And you'll have your throne." He sounded a touch condescending.

A new voice, loud enough I didn't need to focus, added, "And the White Court bows out of the war with the Fomor. Everybody wins." It came from a doorway, and everyone looked.

A Kermit the Frog cosplayer walked in. A really _bad_ cosplayer. Seriously, it looked like a guy in a cheap frog suit, wearing a really ugly toga. Taller than me, gaunt, swollen belly. His lips were swollen. His skin was pale, but not green. What little hair he had looked like it had been stolen from a scarecrow. His eyes bulged. The servitors all stiffened up a little. So, _this_ was a Fomor. How…

Disappointing.

Check that. If I'd been able to put him through a wall with a thought, he'd have been disappointing. As it was, he was just kind of funny-looking. Hilarious, in fact. I found I had to bite the inside of my cheek once again. Maybe I shook a little.

Danicka looked about as disgusted as I was entertained. "Yes," she said. "Everybody." She turned to me and started walking. "Ah, yes, the Winter Knight. I honestly don't know whether to be annoyed or impressed with you."

"Most of my enemies tend to split the difference," I said.

She let a breath out through her nose. Then her eyes snapped to Connie. That made me tense up more than anything she could have said to me. Her eyes snapped back, her head tilting. "Really?" she asked. "Protective of this one?" She looked Connie over again. The selkie looked unimpressed. "She looks like she can handle herself, wizard. And she thinks she can, too." Danicka stepped very close to Connie, and I found myself making fists again.

"Fomor, huh?" I said.

"Yes," she said, not taking her eyes of Connie.

"Figured."

She looked at me. "Did you now?"

I smiled. "Tell me I'm lying."

Her eyes shrank. "How?"

I said, "Same way I realized you're the one who told him about Stoker. You're White Court."

"What does that have to do with it?"

"I was thinking on it all the way here. It's that whole cat's paws thing you all do. Going out of your way to make it look like you weren't involved… well, that makes it look like you were involved. Sure, the Fomor _might_ have hired Krejetzy over there, but they don't like to outsource. Someone had to give them the idea." Kermit grunted. "You probably hired the Einherjar, too. And I mean come on," I said, raising my voice a little, "where else would a Black Court vampire hide? You own this town, don't you? So obviously, he had to go to you. Your competition is human, he couldn't go to them. It also helps that Fomor attacks in Miami are focused on very limited areas, which meant someone was holding them off, which the White Council knows is not happening, or they worked out a deal with someone, again, most likely you." I saw Krejetzy tilt his head. "And of course, the quick clean up at the safe house. But it all seemed to really come together in my mind – really gel – when I realized what you had done to Lara."

"I did nothing to Lara."

"Exactly. Not a damn thing. You're pretty much Raith's greatest rival in the Court, and you do _nothing_? Not even a clumsy attempt on her life? You'll excuse me if I find that a bit suspicious." Her lips formed a very thin line. "But I have to admit, knocking Raith off to take over and conclude a separate peace? Keep yourself out of a war while every other community and Accord Signatory wear themselves down?" I touched my fingers to my lips and made a kissing sound while opening my hand. "Brilliant."

"How does he know so much?" Kermit asked.

Danicka shot him a look.

"I didn't," I said. "Not really. Not until you said that. So, thanks."

"You're even stupider than you look," Danicka said to Kermit.

"You need me!" he shot back.

"Your barrier was worthless; we only saw him on the infrared cameras."

"The barrier works just fine!"

"Then explain why the alarm didn't go off!"

"My lord!" Stealthy said. "He's wearing a thorn manacle." Kermit looked at the servitor, then at me, and slowly grinned. It was gross to see.

Ah, crap.

Danicka looked at me, too, and chuckled. "Oh, you should have taken that off,' wizard'." Her turn to use air quotes. She turned to Krejetzy. "You said you were bored and annoyed? How would you like to kill the Winter Knight?"

I saw the skin on his face start to flake off again as he made that not-smile of his.

I hate being without magic. I really do. Ever since my early teens, when it started to develop along with the rest of those fun changes puberty brings, it had been a part of me, and though it had been strange at first, I came to not just accept it, but to embrace it. Like my chest hair and my need to buy big & tall jeans, it was a part of me.

Facing down death without it kind of sucked.

"Start with the selkie," Danicka said. "She'll be afraid, but he'll be _angry_ and afraid." Her voice sounded almost sultry. Hell's bells, she was getting turned on. I guess anger was the A1 sauce on her fear steak.

Kermit laughed, and another servitor moved to help Stealthy hold Connie. I moved, on instinct, but the big einherjaren grabbed my shoulder and held me steady. "Let go of me," I said. He didn't say anything, or let go. "Let her go! She's not a player in this game!"

"She's a pawn," Krejetzy said, approaching slowly. "And you know what pawns are for."

I was struggling at this point. It was useless, but I did anyway. Danicka was damn right I was angry. She would pay if I survived this. Connie, on the other hand, was very still. She eyed Krejetzy, as if daring him to come closer.

Desperate, I shouted, "Danicka, I'll do anything you ask if you spare her!"

The bitch laughed. "You'll already doing it."

So I was angry, and afraid. Sue me. A friend was about to die and I couldn't stop it. I looked around. I looked at the big guy holding me. "Stop this," I hissed.

"We're under contract to Ms. Malvora," he said. "That cannot be broken." More quietly, he added, "I am sorry, Sir Knight."

Krejetzy was only about ten feet away now, eyes intent on Connie. She reminded me more than ever of Karrin in that moment; she was staring him down, not so much as shaking.

What the hell could I do? God dammit, there had to be something!

The night came alive with a whooping, wailing noise. Danicka's head snapped to Kermit, and Krejetzy actually stopped moving. The anti-magic alarm? Back-up had arrived!

I looked at Connie, and a ghost of relief spread over her face. She looked at me. I saw past her, at the doorway we had been brought through. A tiny cloud of sparking green light floated in. My eyes expanded, but I tried not to react. Danicka and Kermit started shouting orders to go investigate, but I could barely hear them. I saw the cloud twist around until part of it, in the vague shape of a human face, was pointing at me. It froze.

A desperate idea occurred. If she could move her own skull… I held up my arm and shouted, "Open the bracelet!" The cloud moved like lightning, turning into a tight stream and zipping across the room, slipping into the keyhole and vanishing.

A second later, the bracelet clicked open and fell off. The strength of Winter flooded into me, the cool, solid strength of an iceberg infusing my very being. And the magic! The awareness, the confidence, the simple power of life itself that went rushing through my veins… and a whole bunch of light bulbs blew out at once.

It could be intoxicating when you weren't in a rush. Feeling like I could finally breathe again after hours underwater, I drew in energy in a blink. "Connie, get down! _Forzare_!"

I shrugged out of the big man's grip and swept my hand in a broad arc. I saw Connie ripple and drop to the floor as a seal, destroying my shirt as she went. The power of the spell hit the two servitors that had been holding her and sent them flying. It hit Danicka next, and knocked her off her feet. Krejetzy rocked on his heels. Kermit fell flat on his ass.

And, I noticed later, the Einherjaren did nothing at all.

There was an explosion outside. I guessed it was one of Carlos' grenades. Bursts of gunfire. Growls and screams. I was torn; part of me wanted to go help the cavalry, part of me wanted – _needed_ – to kill Krejetzy. The vampire made it easy. He bared his teeth, then turned and ran. Of course he did. He was a spy, not a soldier, and only the best survivors of the Black court survived at all. The mantle's predator instinct kicked in, and I went after him.

A leg came out of nowhere and connected with my gut, knocking me down. I rolled back to my feet and came up in a crouch. Danicka had already launched herself at me, and she hit me like a small car. I managed to roll with the impact, and even added to the momentum. We hit the floor and bounced off a wall, both of us taking about the same impact. In terms of raw strength, we might have been even, but she had more experience, and was more agile. She ended up on top, her hands wrapped around my throat.

I hit her arms, I bucked my legs, I twisted my torso, I tried to pulled her hands off me; nothing worked. The oxygen I'd sucked in was burning up fast, and in just a few seconds, I was seeing stars.

"Fear me, wizard," she said. "Fear me, _Knight_," and she was mocking. "powerful as you are, strong as you are, as many friends as you have, you're still only human."

At that instant, I had to agree with her.

Then a seal's tail smashed her right in the face, snapping her head back. Her hands came free. Connie's human arms snaked around her neck, squeezing. "I'm not human," Connie hissed in her ear, "and I do _not_ fear you." She planted her legs and yanked the larger woman off me, her grip only tightening. "Go, Harry, while you can!"

I drew in a breath and shoved myself to my feet. Noticing a glint of metal on the floor, I snatched up the thorn bracelet, shoved it in a pocket, and took off running, through the other door. Pretty much everyone else in the room had disappeared at some point. I didn't care. I barely noticed. I just had to catch the vampire.

The mantle growled its appreciation of that need, and I shot out the door and through a mudroom. The exterior door had already been smashed off its hinges. I dashed outside and came to a complete stop. It was strange. To my left, Thomas was kicking one servitor while bringing his knife down on another, while to the right, Carlos appeared engaged with Kermit himself, blocking magic and tossing his own. Stealthy was already dead on the ground, which made me feel better.

In the center, the einherjaren were standing around, not fighting anyone, looking like they were waiting for something. When they saw me, they very pointedly did not look at me. But they did shuffle into two lines, leading to an opening in the woods. They were showing me Krejetzy's trail.

"Harry!" I turned to the voice. Marci. She was holding my duster. She tossed it to me. I caught it and shrugged it on over my bare back. She rippled into a wolf and joined the fray.

"Where's my staff?" I shouted.

"Here," another voice said. I looked the other way.

"Andi?"

The redhead looked weary, but she still made it look good. She tossed me my staff, I forced myself not to think about a naked woman holding my stick, then she dropped my boots. She winked and joined Marci, in her other outfit, moving just a little more slowly than usual.

When a servitor started shouting at the Einherjaren to help, one of them shot him in the face. This riled the others up, and more shots were fired.

"Well, that's more like it," I said to myself. I slipped my boots on and shot off into the woods, my laces trailing behind me.


	9. Chapter 9

Just a few feet beyond the well-lit yard, the island dropped into darkness. Once again, I couldn't see. But the Winter mantle could sense. I indulged it a little. The darkness faded a bit, the scent of death and decay wormed its way into my nose. I moved as quickly as I dared. I never thought of myself as a stalker or a hunter, but with the mantle close to the surface, the need to chase things down became very strong. As a result, I soon found myself running in the dark, guided by the basest instincts a living being can rely on.

Those instincts saved my life when Krejetzy swung a freaking tree at me.

I ducked my head for no reason I was consciously aware of, and took the blow almost entirely on the shoulders. I was sent sprawling, face first. Somehow, I think sheer stubbornness, I managed to hold onto my staff. I pushed myself up almost before I finished sliding, and willed a shield into existence.

I took another impact from flying foliage, and the shock traveled up my arm, but I didn't lose my footing. I lifted my other hand and shouted "_Infriga_!"

Condensing moisture out of humid air amazingly easy. A rock solid ball of ice appeared at the end of my staff and shot forward, growing even as it travelled. It shattered against another tree, taking a huge chuck of wood with it. I looked around, but saw nothing. I stopped moving, listened.

Nothing.

I risked speaking. "I know you're still - "

He exploded out of some ground-covering bushes, hands first. I twisted to get the duster between us; if he got his hands on my throat, Connie wouldn't be able to pry him off.

He hit me hard, lifting me into the air. I crouched low and I came back down and planted my staff. "_Geodus_!" The ground jumped in a very good imitation of an earthquake, throwing him back up, off his feet. I lifted a hand before he could land. "_Forzare_!" The blast took him full in the chest and sent him through another tree, a very tall palm. There was a loud cracking noise, and the tree came crashing down towards me; I ducked and rolled out of the way. I stood up and immediately took a large rock in the back.

I stumbled, but got another shield up. Noise from the left. I turned. The from behind me. I spun again. I enhanced senses that came with the mantle were razor-sharp, and wound tight. I could see in near-perfect dark, and hear pretty damn well. Which might be the only reason I looked up.

Krejetzy was sailing down on top of me in a graceful, silent arc. I moved my shield, but took the whole impact in my arms, and they buckled. The dome of protection vanished, and he brought down a might fist. I took the hit on my left arm, and both felt and heard something disturbing like a break.

I grunted with the pain, then danced back a step as took a swipe at me. Then again. And again. I backed into another tree trunk, and ducked to the side. His fingers ripped the bark off. I tossed a fire spell at him, tuning it wide. He dashed to the side to avoid it, then took off again.

I followed, fast as I could. The hunt, the chase, was on me now, and I couldn't have let him go even if I'd wanted to. He was little more than a smear of moving darkness against more darkness, but I didn't let him get away. I bounced off of trees and tripped on rocks and roots; I simply caught myself on my hands and bounced back up.

He dropped from sight. I slid to a stop; I was at the top of an embankment, leading down to a tiny depression. Someone in the past had used the clearing as a barbeque pit. I knew this because I had to throw myself down the bank to avoid the flying barbeque.

I rolled to my feet, shield ready. He was already charging at me and bounced off the shield, driving me back. My heels dug small ruts in the dirt, but I didn't let the dome of energy dissipate this time.

He backed off a little, putting a couple of split-log benches between us. His dead eyes followed me as I tried to gain an advantage in ground. Part of me wanted to just charge at him, rip him to pieces with my bare hands, but another, smarter part, knew he was too strong for that.

For a moment, we both paused to gather our bearings. Aside from the exposed roasting pit and the log benches, there was nothing in the clearing. I was breathing hard, he wasn't breathing at all.

"You can't let it go, can you?" he asked.

"I have an edict from my Queen."

He nodded. "I understand. A pity. You are quite a bit more impressive than the usual ilk."

"Yeah. Management's trying something new."

"I have never killed a Winter Knight before. The Summer Knight, once, decades ago, but not Winter."

"Have you ever tried?"

"The opportunity never came up, until tonight."

"Well, then, why don't we just get this over with?"

He said nothing, just blurred. I had a shield ready, but he didn't come straight at me. Instead, he circled the clearing and came in from the side, and his hands wrapped neatly around my neck. I should have seen that coming, since he wasn't much for direct confrontation. Somewhere in my mind, I realized there was a lesson to be learned here.

I lost my concentration and dropped my staff, both hands going to his as he started to squeeze. He lifted me off the ground. He didn't say anything. I pulled at his fingers and kicked wildly, but the best I could manage was to slow his fingers down. I started seeing stars.

A green cloud burst from my jeans pocket, resolving itself into a face. A face I found familiar. It wasn't quite Maggie's face, but it was close. Krejetzy's head snapped to the side to follow the movement. The cloud made a screaming sound, and next thing I knew, my daughter was wrapped around his head, zipping into and out of every crack in his desiccated skin. "What? What is this?" He was swiping at his own head, taking chunks of his own flesh off with his nails.

He dropped me and I landed hard, my legs collapsing. I gulped in air.

"Get out of me!" the vampire shouted.

I could barely move, but my hand found the familiar sensation of the smoothed wood of my staff. I planted the bottom end in the dirt, lifted the other end, pointed it at his heart, and mentally triggered the kinetic energy spell. There wasn't much in it, but there was enough. The staff jumped, hard, and buried itself in his chest. It splintered, breaking off inside him.

The vampire gasped and stopped moving. The green energy coalesced outside him and stopped moving. He slowly shrank in on himself, getting smaller and smaller until he just collapsed, his clothes dropping into a pile full of dust. Olan Krejetzy was dead.

I just sat there, breathing hard for a moment, deflating myself. Then the beautiful green ember lights drifted down to me, again forming a face that seemed to resemble Maggie. "Are you okay?" her voice asked from everywhere and nowhere.

"I will be."

The face smiled.

"How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Leave the bracelet."

She looked confused. "Um, I just _did_. Like when I left the skull."

"No, I mean, no one told you to. How did you do that if no one told you to?"

"I have to be told? That doesn't make any sense. You said I should be good. I felt a need to help you. That was the good thing to do, right?"

I was suddenly a little scared. "Yes. It was. And I did. But spirits can't leave their vessels unless the possessor of the vessel gives them permission."

"Oh. I didn't know that. I mean, I did, but I didn't realize it applied to me."

Then I got a lot more scared. My spirit daughter could leave her vessel without permission. She wasn't like Bob; while she was a spirit, she seemed to have some degree of free will. A spirit, with all the knowledge of a Fallen angel and the emotional maturity of a practical newborn. And knowledge, to a being like her, was literally power.

Forget scared. I was fucking terrified.

I walked back towards the lot, a little stunned and a lot worried, following the sound of human voices. With the hunt over, the mantle had retreated, and the fatigue of the last two days plus the burst of running was catching up to me. I ran into Thomas, who looked relieved in the little light I could will into the amulet, and Connie.

"Harry! Empty night. You're okay!" He slapped me gently on the shoulder. "You are okay, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

"Harry," Connie said. She was naked again, and quite unconcerned about it. I was too tired to be concerned myself. "You were successful?"

I nodded. "He's dust."

"Seriously?" Thomas asked. "I mean, no offence, but, how?"

I held up the bracelet. Through the keyhole, if one were inclined to look, one could see a slight green glow. "Had a little help."

"Wow. Oh, right." He reached into a backpack he was wearing and pulled out the wooden skull. "Here."

I took it. "Thanks. Hey, if you'd like to go back," I said to the cuff. She didn't answer, just floated from one object into the other. She seemed to be moving slowly. "She's exhausted," I said.

"Yeah, saving your ass can be a little draining." I snorted.

"What is that?" Connie asked.

I decided to be honest. "A weapon." She backed away half a step, but let it go. We started walking back along the trail.

"Oh, here," Thomas said. He reached up behind his neck and undid the amulet he was wearing – mine, complete with the cut ruby – and handed it over.

I took it and handed over the skull so I could undo his from around my neck. "I guess it worked?"

"Yup." He took his back and started to fasten it. "Ramirez opened the door to the Nevernever, and M - the jewel told us where to go after Dana found you."

I crinkled my eyebrows. "'Dana'?"

"Yeah. As in Scully, from the X-Files? Scully, skull-y?" he hefted the skull in one hand.

I said nothing for a second. "That's… actually pretty good." Connie looked confused, but said nothing. Thomas put the skull back in the pack. "Everyone's okay?"

Connie said, "Andi's a little shaky, but she's still dealing with her first set of injuries. Mr. Ramirez's leg went out again, but he managed. Marci's fine."

Thomas continued, "The Einherjar turned on the Fomor after Connie killed Danicka."

"Killed?" I turned. "You mean you actually - ?"

"Tore her head off," she said. I smiled with the irony as we emerged into the lit-up yard.

"Then our Norse friends vanished," Thomas said.

"Vanished to where?"

"Took their own shortcut, I guess." I looked around. There were bodies everywhere, but none of them were human. And none of them had died clean. How sad. Ramirez and the Alphas were stacking bodies and parts. Marci and Andi had pulled dresses on and both looked quite disgusted. "This is so gross," Andi muttered.

"You tear things apart with your teeth and claws, this is the price you pay," I said.

"Dresden," Carlos said.

"I'm told you managed," I said.

"Yeah, to cut a Fomor lord in half. I'm going to call this trip a success."

I nodded. "Need some help?"

"Please."

We piled as many bodies as we could, mixed in some wood and surrounded the pile with rocks. Carlos and I set fire to them while the others got the yacht ready to depart.

I actually managed to get some sleep on the boat. I found myself thinking more clearly when I woke up. The sun was coming up as we pulled into dock. I emerged onto the deck in time to hear Marci asking Thomas, "Wouldn't it have been better to leave the boat? I mean, won't the police have questions about who was on it?"

"The police don't have questions when the White Court is involved."

"That's the truth," Carlos said. "You should see how fast an investigation closes in L. A. when they get a hint that the Skavis or Raith are involved."

As we pulled in, I could see a pair of men waiting on the dock: Mr. Large and Mr. Talkative. "I guess Lara sent a car?" I asked.

"I called ahead," Thomas answered. He clambered up to the bridge to take the wheel.

Once we were docked, the lot of us – including Connie, now wearing a borrowed dress again – followed the men to Lara's limo. Lady Raith herself was not there. The ride was mostly quiet. Instead of the hotel, they took us to an empty parking garage where Thomas' Humvee and his sister waited.

She actually seemed relieved to see Thomas. As the others moved their things from one vehicle to the other, I looked at Lara. "A moment?"

"Certainly." She led me away from the others, her fashionable and very expensive heels clicking on the concrete. We kept walking until we were well outside earshot, even of Thomas. I kept my voice low anyway.

"Congratulations."

"On what?"

"Another masterful gambit."

She looked surprised, but there was a twinkle in her eye. "Whatever do you mean?"

"All you had to do was leak your travel plans." One side of her mouth ticked up, ever so slightly. "Your strongest critic in the Court is dead. A powerful predator with a grudge against you and yours is dead. The Fomor were shamed, and dealt a blow from a White Council Warden, though I'm thinking that was just a bonus. Your policy of supporting peace with the Council and adherence to the Accords is shown to be in everyone's best interests. I'm guessing you caught wind of Danicka's deal with Krejetzy a few years ago and were just waiting for an opportunity. Just had to leak your plans, and wait for Danicka to be Danicka. Seriously… Batman would be proud."

"If you say so."

"It's nothing less than I'd expect from you, really. The only thing I can't figure; you're good, but Mab's better. How did you get one over on the Sidhe?"

She smiled, and it was hungry. "Oh, Harry. What makes you think I did?" She turned and walked back to the cars. I was left standing with my mouth open. She stopped and looked back. "Oh, I hear you've got a friend looking for girl's names?"

"Yeah?"

"I've always been fond of Lilith. Or Salome." She kept walking, and after a good long sigh, I followed her. As Lara got into her limo, Thomas asked me, "What was that about?"

"Oh, you know," I said. "Plots and schemes."

"Oh, good. I was worried there, for a second."

The trip through the Nevernever was relatively quiet. I told the little one she could come out, though I guessed that wasn't strictly necessary anymore. I spent my time thinking and napping.

We emerged back into the empty lot, and before long, we were dropping Andi and Marci at Butters' apartment. Connie tried to return her borrowed dress then, but Marci insisted she keep it. We dropped Carlos at a Way he was comfortable with, in the yard of a high school. "You sure you'll be all right to walk?" I asked from the Hummer's window.

He rapped his knuckles on the brace. "It's good for at least an hour. Won't take that long to get back to L.A. Get in touch with Listens-to-Wind."

I nodded. "I will. And hey, thank you."

"Don't thank me until all the paperwork's filed." He held up a fist, and I reached down to bump it. "Good to have to back, man."

I thought on it for a second, and decided I agreed. "It's good to be back."

A short while later, Thomas pulled up to the marina where the _Water Beetle_ was docked. "Why are we here?" I asked.

"When I called ahead, Lara wasn't the only one I talked to. Someone's expecting you." He nodded to another limousine, and the young woman standing beside it.

Molly. "Is that the Winter Lady?" Connie asked.

"It is," I said. "Come on."

We walked beside each other while Thomas waited in the truck. We stopped a few feet from Molly as she smiled. "Hi," she said.

"Lady," Connie said.

"Molly," I said.

"It's good to see you both. Harry, where's your staff? And your shirt?"

"Broken off in a vampire, and splattered on some Fomor."

"Well, that's not the strangest answer you've ever given. Connie, you're well?"

"I am, Lady."

"And you were successful?"

"I was, Lady."

"She kicked ass," I added.

Molly nodded gravely. "Well, in that case, I hold your debt paid." Connie took a deep breath, as though a great weight had just been lifted from her. Molly held out her hand. "And, thank you. I'm rather fond of the Winter Knight."

Connie shook Molly's hand, but she looked up at me. "Aye, I understand why." Then she yanked her dress off and handed it to me. I averted my eyes and Molly rolled hers. "Give that back to Marci?"

"I will," I said.

She put a hand on my left arm pulled me down; I winced only a little. She kissed me on the cheek. "And be careful. I don't want to have to save your life a fourth time." Then she turned to the water and dove in. A second later, there was a splash from her tail, and she was gone.

"She did a good job?" Molly asked.

"Couldn't have asked for better. Everything worked out nicely. For everybody."

She looked at me, some guilt on her face. "I think I owe you an apology."

"How much did you know, going in?"

"Nothing, really. I only got the full story a few hours ago. I think this is why the Queen got me to talk to you. She didn't want you suspecting anything."

"What, that Mab had a backdoor deal with the Raiths?"

"Exactly!"

"Don't."

"What?"

"Don't. Don't apologize. You were manipulated, too."

"I know, and I hate it!" She stopped, and leaned back against the car. "There are a lot of things I'd like to say right now."

"But, you have a Faron."

Her face tightened up. "I never would have sent you into such a messy situation if I'd seen it coming."

"Maybe not." I turned and leaned beside her. "But as much as we both hate it, it's what I'm here for. It's actually my job now. And your job is to be my boss. You're my captain, and I'm your soldier."

"That seems so unnatural."

"You're telling me. When last we met, you were but the learner."

She looked up at me with a pained expression. "Now I am the master?" She shook her head. "This is how it's going to be from now on, isn't it? We're stuck."

"Well… I don't want to get your hopes up, but I've heard rumors that, under the right circumstances, mantles can be moved around."

She snorted. "I've heard those stories, too. I don't want to get your hopes down, but it's not easy to do."

"Good. Nothing worth doing is ever easy. So, until that option becomes available, we stay sharp. We take care of each other, just like we agreed."

She nodded. "All we can do, isn't it?"

There was nothing else to say. We hugged, then I sauntered back to the truck and Thomas drove me home.

I grabbed my bag, bounded out of the truck, waved goodbye, and let myself in. "Honey, I'm - " I cut myself off. Karrin was sitting in the living room with the Summer Knight. "Fix," I said, tensing.

He was a thin man, but had a decent amount of muscle on him. Unfuly, shlouder-length white hair. He wore jeans, boots, and a linen shirt. He usually carried a sword, but he had left it at the doorway, and it was now right by my hand. He stood, slowly.

"Harry," Karrin said. "We have a guest." She subtly emphasized the last word. I relaxed a little. If Fix was here as a guest, he was bound to behave. "If you two want to duke something out," she said, "we can take it outside." She moved to stand beside me, a subtle but important sign.

"Winter Knight," he said, nodding at me.

"Summer Knight," I answered. "What brings you here?"

"I just wanted to express what a shame it was that I wasn't able to meet you in Florida. Unfortunately, my Queen had other duties for me."

I felt a tiny little smile tugging at my lips. "Yeah. Yeah, that was a shame." I licked my lips. "Fix, are we cool? I mean, we haven't spoken since - "

He held up a hand. "Harry, don't." He paused a moment, gathering his thoughts. Karrin and I said nothing. "Lily was the first person who was ever nice to me. I loved her. And I miss her." He took a deep breath. "But I don't blame you. Honestly, I don't even blame Maeve anymore, though I'll admit it took a while to get to that point." He stepped closer. "In the end, all the fighting - Summer/Winter, left/right, east/west – isn't important. It's all just a distraction from the real fight."

"Inside/Outside," I said.

He nodded. "There's a greater enemy. And that makes it very, very important to keep everyone close. Winter, Summer, friends, family, even enemies. Everyone. So, yeah, we're cool." He even managed to pull up one side of his face.

I gave him a serious nod, then moved out of his way. He picked up his sword by the scabbard and moved to the door. "Hey, Fix," I said as he opened the door. He paused. "What would you name a new born girl?"

He gave me a confused look.

"A friend of mine. About to have a daughter."

He hung his head sadly. It didn't occur to me at the time why he would look so sad, but thinking back on it later, it was obvious. "I was always fond of Diana," he said. "But in the end, there's no point in asking around, Harry. The name should mean something to the family." Then he turned and left.

I let out a breath and looked at Karrin. "Hi," I said.

"Hey. Welcome home. Where's your shirt?"

"It blew up, but I wasn't wearing it at the time."

Her eyebrows jumped. "This is going to be a good one."

"Yeah. Later." I bent down and kissed her. Then I picked her up and stated towards the bedroom. "Much later."

That evening, just a little after dinnertime, Karrin pulled her little SUV into the Carpenter driveway. "Last chance to re-think," she said.

"No. No, this is the right thing to do."

We headed inside, Charity and Michael greeting us warmly. Like family. Dinner was finished, and children were reveling in play. Mouse almost knocked me down, and Maggie wrapped herself around my leg when they saw me. Then Harry the Younger wrapped himself around my other leg, and I had to clomp about the house like an awkward ogre with no knees for a few minutes until they got bored.

Kids.

After a little while, it was bedtime. I carried Maggie into her room. Mouse was already there, and made a show of getting comfortable on his spot on the floor. I closed the door over without latching it and put her on the floor instead of into bed. "Maggie, I want you to sit next to Mouse and hold on to him, okay?"

"Why?" she asked, though she did sit and sink her hand into his fur. He didn't object, just looked at me.

"Well," I said, taking the skull out of my pocket, "there's someone I want you to meet."

She was looking at the skull, and she seemed very confused.

I put the skull down in the centre of the room. "I just want you to remember that there is nothing to be scared of, and me and Mouse won't let anything bad happen, okay?"

"Oooookay." She sank a little further behind Mouse, her eyes never leaving the skull.

I made a face. Obviously my reassurances weren't helping. "Okay. Let's try this differently. Don't think about this silly old skull. It's just a piece of wood I carved. It's what's inside it that's important." I touched the carved wood, and said, "Would you like to come out?"

Tiny little green lights flickered to life in the eye sockets, and Maggie gasped. Then the ember lights slowly flooded out into a glowing cloud. I sat on the floor between my daughters, and held a hand out to Maggie. She seemed hypnotized, wide-eyed and curious as the cloud turned and twisted and made strange shapes. In her fascination, she seemed to forget to be scared. Even Mouse was watching.

"Maggie?" She turned to me. I smiled. She smiled back and took my hand. She stood up, and so did I. She looked back at the cloud, with a child's awe and wonder. "Now, I'd like to introduce you to your sister."

The cloud resolved itself into a shape, the shape of a face. The face was very close to Maggie's, but not identical. It looked back at Maggie with the same expression of wonder. I had been worried that Maggie would be afraid, or confused, or disgusted, or any one of a thousand things, but she was simply amazed.

Maggie still held on to me, but she held out her other hand, still smiling. The cloud re-shaped itself to have a body, and held out a ghostly hand, too. The face smiled.

"She's so pretty," Maggie said. "Beautiful."

I sighed and smiled, all tension leaving me. And I considered the name 'Belle.'


End file.
